2024-01-31 20:16:04
Despite concessions from Paris and Brussels, the French farmers’ revolt did not subside on Wednesday night (31). They kept up the pressure on highways and around Rungis, known as France’s largest wholesale market, where dozens of them were arrested after a brief show of force.
Published on: 01/31/2024 – 21:16
4 min
The attempt to block the Rungis market, the French capital’s food hub, was a “red line not to be crossed”, as the Paris police previously warned. The warning did not discourage the 79 people arrested after breaking into the wholesale market, where “damage” was caused, according to a police source.
At around 4:50 pm (12:50 pm in Brasília), several dozen farmers, including some members of the Rural Coordination of the Lot-et-Garonne region, arrived on foot in front of the Rungis market warehouses. Serge Bousquet-Cassagne, president of the region’s Chamber of Agriculture, who was leading the protest, said: “We decided to take Rungis and we took Rungis.”
The aid package released to farmers this Wednesday (31) by the French government and the concessions from the European Commission on Ukrainian imports were not enough for rural producers, who are also mobilizing in Italy, Spain and Germany.
In addition to emergency funds already announced for beef producers, organic producers and farmers affected by Storm Ciaran, struggling French winegrowers will receive €80 million in assistance, Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau announced.
In Brussels, the European Commission granted a partial derogation from the set-aside obligation. But the measure arrived “late” in the agricultural calendar and remains “limited”, criticized Copa-Cogeca, the organization of the EU’s main agricultural unions.
Copa-Cogeca also believes that measures taken to limit any uncontrollable rise in Ukrainian agricultural imports, which have soared following customs duty exemptions granted since 2022 to support the war-torn country, are “insufficient” for the products in question (poultry, eggs and sugar). It would also be “unacceptable” for cereals and oilseeds to be excluded from these measures, the organization adds.
The European Commission “responded to France’s requests”, the Élysée Palace said on Wednesday.
The head of the National Federation of French Agricultural Producers (FNSEA), Arnaud Rousseau, told French senators that “there are great expectations” among farmers protesting in France. “It could be even bigger than we imagine, with obviously (…) issues that cannot be resolved in three days. So I’m trying to make an appeal for calm and reason.”
But if the government does not present “in-depth” answers, the Agriculture Show, the sector’s main event taking place at the end of February, will not be “a good thermometer” for politicians, warned Rousseau. His union had distanced itself from rural coordination by rejecting the idea of going “to hold a protest in Rungis”.
European Agriculture Ministers mobilized
Marc Fesneau, France’s agriculture minister, traveled to Brussels on Wednesday afternoon, ahead of French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, to discuss farmers’ demands.
Spain’s Agriculture Minister has announced that he will hold an emergency meeting with the country’s main agricultural unions on Friday (2), while Italy’s main agricultural union confederation, Coldiretti, plans to travel to Brussels on Thursday with around thousand farmers on the peninsula to denounce “the madness that threatens agriculture”.
On the eve of the European summit, French and Belgian farmers “jointly” blocked a border crossing between the two countries, denouncing “the distortion of competition” in free trade agreements, and expect “very strong announcements” tomorrow.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal received the leaders of the Rural Coordination and the Confederation of Farmers (the second and third largest unions in the sector), after long conversations on Monday and Tuesday with the FNSEA and Jovens Farmers (JA).
In France, as of 5 p.m., more than 150 demonstrations had been counted, with 8,500 protesters and around 5,500 vehicles, a police source said.
In the Paris region, seven roadblocks and two processions were recorded with around 1,000 participants and the same number of vehicles. Access to Paris was not impossible, but it required major detours.
(With AFP)
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