On the eve of the opening of the Agricultural Show and in a climate of strong discontent, two processions of tractors paraded through the streets of Paris on Friday January 23. Around thirty tractors, displaying the French flag and that of the Rural Coordination, a union courted by the far right, gathered in the morning on Avenue de Versailles, in Paris; the procession set off around 10:15 a.m. with the aim of reaching Les Invalides around noon.
Another procession, led by the National Federation of Farmers' Unions (FNSEA) and the Young Farmers (JA), will end in the early evening in front of the Agricultural Show, before the doors open on Saturday. The FNSEA recognizes that the show presents itself this year “as an eminently political time”, but also wants the event to remain a “festive time”.
Outside of Paris, farmers are also mobilizing, according to local media reports. “Around 11 a.m., the farmers decided to embark on a snail operation on the A75 motorway, after intervening at the Leclerc supermarket in Clermont-l’Hérault,” reported Midi libre.
In Lorient, in Morbihan, “a mini agricultural exhibition is set up in front of the sub-prefecture”, according to Ouest-France. “Around fifty farmers from Rural Coordination (…) came with their animals and their grievances,” adds the media.
The intelligence services note, according to a police source, that the base of the agricultural world remains “quite difficult to channel, particularly in certain departments”, without specifying which ones.
Mobilization since Wednesday
Since Wednesday, after an intervention by the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, summarizing the projects undertaken in recent weeks to improve and simplify the lives of farmers, on pesticides, seasonal workers or remuneration, the actions of farmers have resumed. At the call of the Peasant Confederation, some 200 demonstrators took over the headquarters of Lactalis, in Laval, in Mayenne.
In the South, farmers blocked the A62 motorway in the evening, between Agen (Lot-et-Garonne) and Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne).
Furthermore, the Elysée has announced its intention to organize a major exchange between the Head of State and “all stakeholders in the agricultural world” on Saturday, the opening day of the Show. But the invitation made to the Uprisings of the Earth, an environmentalist collective that the executive wanted to dissolve before the decision was canceled by the Council of State, aroused the anger of the FNSEA.
The presidency backed down on Thursday evening, without reducing the tension. The president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, announced on Friday morning that he would not participate in the dialogue desired by the President of the Republic. At midday, the Elysée conceded an “error” and assured that the Earth Uprisings had not been “invited”.
