The “Paris Siege,” as the agricultural unions call it, was activated promptly at 2 p.m. this Monday. Nobody knows how long it will last or how far it will go. On the A13, one of the eight access roads to the French capital that have since been closed, fifty tractors began to occupy the road at a slow but determined pace, while some police officers watched from a distance and the cars turned off the first exit towards Mantes-la- Jolie, the neighboring town.
The FNSEA, France's first agricultural union, wants to continue the protest until President Emmanuel Macron addresses its demands, which range from a relaxation of environmental standards to measures against what they say is “unfair competition” from countries such as Spain, Italy and Ukraine . They also complain about excessive bureaucracy and falling incomes, as well as the obligation to leave 4% of their land fallow.
The Interior Ministry has stationed 15,000 police and gendarmes across the country and uses armored police vehicles to protect the city of Rungis, Europe's main wholesale market, as well as Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports. The aim of the deployment of the security forces is to prevent these nerve centers of economic life from being curtailed and to prevent tractors from getting stuck on the capital's edge boulevard – the Ringstrasse – or even from driving into the city. The FNSEA and the other union convening the “site”, Young Farmers, have stated that they have no intention of blocking access to Rungis or entry into Paris for the time being.
“We will stay here until decisions are made at the top,” promises Adrien Lemarié after parking the tractor on the A13. “As long as it takes,” emphasizes the son of a family of grain farmers, like most in this area on the banks of the Seine, about 40 kilometers west of Paris. He planned to sleep in the vehicle and his father and sister will take over on Tuesday.
Lemarié says some cars he passed honked in a show of support as he drove his vehicle onto the highway to block them. The land movement, which began two weeks ago in the south of France and has since spread throughout the region, enjoys widespread popular support. The symbolism of the siege of Paris is significant. This is no longer a provincial or rural protest, but one that moves closer to the center of political and media power and makes it more visible. And intimidating.
A farmer sets up a tent on his tractor trailer on a highway north of Paris. Christophe Ena (AP)
Demonstrators prepare to spend the night during the protest that takes them to Paris.BENOIT TESSIER (Portal)
A banner reading “Proud to Feed You!” near a roadblock set up by farmers on the A4 motorway near Jossigny, east of Paris.BERTRAND GUAY (AFP)
Several farmers in the A-1 chat during the protest.BENOIT TESSIER (Portal)
A tractor caravan passes through Noailles (France) this Monday.STEPHANIE LECOCQ (Portal)
A driver makes the victory sign from his van as dozens of tractors arrive at the closure point on the D1001 national highway near Bornel, north of Paris.MOHAMMED BADRA (EFE)
A gendarme watches the tractor column on the way to Paris. MARCO TRUJILLO (Portal)
A farmer takes a selfie on the roof of his tractor during a blockade of the A6 motorway near Villabe, south of Paris. EMMANUEL DUNAND (AFP)
Empty A4 motorway just before being blocked by French farmers near Jossigny, east of Paris.BERTRAND GUAY (AFP)
Farmers drive their tractors on a highway towards Paris, near Chamant, north of the capital.Matthieu Mirville (AP)
French farmers walk along the A16 highway in Beauvais, France, on Monday as they try to reach Paris while protesting against prices, taxes and environmental regulations, grievances shared by farmers across Europe. STEPHANIE LECOCQ (Portal)
A French farmer hangs a French flag on his tractor as a convoy prepares to leave Boe near Agen in southwestern France, following a call by the CR47 (Rural Coordination 47) trade union to close the Rungis market, the largest wholesalers in the world. near Paris.CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT (AFP)
A tractor takes part in a protest on the Belgian-French border between Aubange and Mont-Saint-Martin, with a sign reading: “As a child you dream of it, as an adult you die of it.” JULIEN WARNAND (AFP)
French farmers march down the street with their tractors. One of them (below) carries a sign that reads “Savings and transfers, the farmer's code of honor.” CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT (AFP)
French farmers are protesting across the country, with several agricultural unions calling on them to defend better wages and lower taxes. CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT (AFP)
French police officers guard the entrance to the Rungis market this Monday. JULIEN DE ROSA (AFP)
French farmers prepare their tractors to leave in convoy for Paris.CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT (AFP)
An effigy of a farmer in overalls hangs on a road overpass at the Nimes-Ouest exit of the A9 motorway near Nimes, southern France.SYLVAIN THOMAS (AFP)
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The blockade on the A13 – known as the Normandy motorway – consists of tractors, some flying French flags, parked in a row on the road in both directions. Passage is not possible without the permission of the organizers, who have set up a caravan with food and tables for journalists under a tarpaulin. One banner says: “France, do you still love your farmers?” Another says: “There is no country without a farmer.” And another, said to be pulled by a tractor, says: “Macron! “Let’s not import food we don’t want.”
The owner of this last tractor is Thomas Brebion and he explains that the problem is that France, in addition to the European regulations, imposes regulations that make life difficult for farmers. He points to the ban on insecticides for beets, which, in his opinion, has led to a decline in production and the closure of sugar producers.
“Now sugar is being bought in Ukraine,” he says. “We,” he specifies, “work for the environment. My grandfather was a farmer and my father. But there are ecological regulations that don’t always make sense.”
Protests in Belgium
The closure of access to Paris and other cities and highways in France coincides with protests in Belgium that threaten to converge in Brussels, where this Monday several tractors have already arrived almost at the doors of the European Parliament. Silvia Ayuso reports. The demonstrators are demanding an improvement in production income. And they condemn the environmental policy of the EU Green Deal as well as international trade agreements such as the one that is still outstanding with the Latin American Mercosur countries.
This is a widespread claim among French farmers and Macron supports it. “France is clearly against the form of the Mercosur agreement,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said on Friday during a visit to a farm. “The President of the Republic has always opposed it and we continue to oppose it and will continue to do so.”
In Paris the blockade is not noticeable and there are ways for drivers to get around it, but if it were extended things could change. All eyes are on young Attal, who is facing a potentially explosive crisis following his recent appointment.
Road closure near Namur (Belgium), this Monday. OLIVIER HOSLET (EFE)
Speaking at the farm on Friday, Attal said the government would scrap the increase in tax rate on tractor fuel, one of the sector's key demands. For Arnaud Lepoil, leader of the trade union in Mantes-la-Jolie and leader of the mobilization on the A13, the fuel measures are “a foretaste”. “We would like him to do more.” On Tuesday, the prime minister will make his first general policy speech to the National Assembly and could use the opportunity to announce new concessions. On Normandy Highway Monday afternoon, a farmer installed a television under the awning: “We'll watch it from here.”
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