 "France: Farmers' protest reaches Paris as pressure mounts on Emmanuel Macron")
On Friday, farmers drove tractors into the heart of Paris in an attempt to exert more pressure on President Emmanuel Macron, who had earlier planned a meeting to address their complaints but had since postponed it.
French farmers have participated in a pan-European campaign to protest poor wages, environmental regulations, and competition from low-cost imports from outside the EU.
By the time the annual national agricultural exposition, the Salon de l’Agriculture, begins in Paris on Saturday, they had demanded an answer from the government.
“The idea was to add a little bit of pressure before the fair opens,” said Damien Greffin, a cereal farmer and Paris region chief of the main farmers’ union FNSEA.
Last month, farmers across the country organized protests until the administration committed to reforms.
However, additional steps offered by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Wednesday failed to appease protesters, and all eyes are now on Macron, who is expected to attend the annual agriculture exhibition on Saturday.
Macron announced on Thursday that he will facilitate a discussion there with “all actors in the agriculture world” to “outline the future” of the industry.
Macron’s inclusion of the extreme ecology group Soulevements de la Terre (“Uprisings of the Earth”), which the interior minister recently attempted to have outlawed after labelling them “eco-terrorists,” caused the effort to get off to a rough start.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsMacron’s office announced that there had been “an error” and that the Soulevements group had not been invited following protests from opposition politicians, farming organizations, and even government officials.
However, the damage was already done, as Macron’s idea was branded as “cynical” by FNSEA head Arnaud Rousseau, who also declared that he would not support “something that doesn’t allow dialogue in good conditions”.
Macron canceled the entire event in response to the call for a boycott, his office announced on Friday. In its place, he will meet with farmers’ unions before the fair opened on Saturday.
Attal unveiled a law aimed at resolving farmers’ complaints on Wednesday, pledging to bring agriculture “to the status of a fundamental national interest”.
Despite this, farmers have persisted in closing down highways, torching tires, and besieging grocery stores, claiming they require more.
Friday morning, about thirty tractors drove into the heart of Paris and headed toward Les Invalides, an esplanade that is close to the French parliament. In the afternoon, at the authorities’ suggestion, they began their departure.
Later, a second caravan arrived in Paris and pitched up south-west of the city, close to the site of the agriculture exhibition.
A major yearly event for farmers, the public, and politicians, the FNSEA admitted that this year’s fair would be “eminently political” but added that it would ideally also be a “time of celebration.”
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