French farmers put pressure on Macron, tractors roll into Paris

Farmers staged nationwide protests last month until the government promised reforms.

Paris:

Farmers drove tractors into central Paris on Friday to pile fresh pressure on President Emmanuel Macron, who promised to hold a meeting with farmers to discuss their grievances but later canceled the event.

French farmers have been part of a Europe-wide movement against environmental rules and competition from cheap imports from outside the EU, and protest against low wages.

They demanded a response from the government ahead of the opening of the Salon Agriculturique, a popular national agricultural fair, in Paris on Saturday.

“The idea is to add a little pressure before the show opens,” said Damien Greffin, a cereal grower and head of the Paris region of the main farmers’ union FNSEA.

Farmers staged nationwide protests last month until the government promised reforms.

But new measures announced by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Wednesday failed to appease protesters, and all eyes are now on Macron, who is due to visit the annual agricultural fair on Saturday.

On Thursday, Macron said he would hold a debate there involving “all actors in agriculture” to “outline the future of the sector”.

But the initiative ran into difficulties at the outset when Macron included the radical ecology group Soulevements de la Terre (“Earth Uprising”). The interior minister recently tried to ban the group, calling them “eco-terrorists”.

Soulevements was not invited after protests from agricultural unions, opposition politicians and even within the government, which Macron’s office said was “a mistake”.

But the damage had been done, with FNSEA president Arnaud Rousseau calling Macron’s initiative “cynical” and saying he would not engage in “something that does not allow for dialogue under good conditions”.

Macron canceled the event altogether in the face of calls for a boycott, his office said on Friday, adding that he would meet with farmers’ unions before the fair opens on Saturday.

Attal on Wednesday pledged to elevate agriculture to “the status of a fundamental national interest” and outlined a farm bill aimed at addressing farmers’ grievances.

But farmers continued to block roads, burn tires and besiege supermarkets, saying they needed more.

Police sources told AFP that authorities were finding the farmers’ movement in parts of the country “difficult to control”.

About 30 tractors entered central Paris on Friday morning, heading towards Les Invalides near the French parliament. They began leaving in the afternoon at the request of authorities.

A second convoy then entered Paris and set up camp near the site of an agricultural fair southwest of the capital.

The FNSEA acknowledged that this year’s fair – an important annual event for farmers, the public and politicians – will have “overt political significance” but said it hoped it would also be a “moment of celebration”.

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