After the call of the majority unions FNSEA and Young Farmers to suspend road blockages in France, this slogan was followed in several departments, whose prefectures reported lifting of blockades, or at the very least reductions, even if occasional blockages persist this Friday morning.
This slogan to “lift the barriers” follows a third round of announcements from Prime Minister Gabriel Attal this Thursday. Among these announcements: the strengthening of the Egalim laws, 150 million euros in tax and social support for breeders, or the suspension of a plan to reduce phytosanitary products. The government is releasing a total of 400 million euros to the agricultural world to put an end to the crisis. But environmentalists denounce the termination of the Ecophyto plan on pesticides. For its part, the Confédération paysanne, the third agricultural union, assures that it “remains mobilized“.
“If it wasn’t a flash in the pan, we’ll start again,” warns the president of the FNSEA
“If in the end it was all just a flash in the pan, let’s start again, there’s no choice“, Arnaud Rousseau, president of the FNSEA, warned this Friday on BFMTV. The farmers’ representative meets the government at the Agricultural Show: “The government is committed to providing us with a certain number of answers, in particular with a bill. In this bill, we want to see things on the installation, on the transfer of farms. We want to see things about the competitiveness of our farms because price is a central subject (…) And finally, we want to see things about food sovereignty.“, he listed.
“We are giving ourselves until June to have a definitive law because we know that a law cannot be done. in fifteen days“, he stressed.
Arnaud Rousseau also asked highway concessionaires “to be understanding” towards farmers. Damage was noted on certain motorways, such as in Haute-Vienne, in particular, after the passage of the Rural Coordination convoy in the direction of Rungis. The damage was estimated at 400,000 euros in the Agen area, according to MP Jean Dionis of Séjour (MoDem). “We asked that, everywhere, when leaving the blockage points, as far as possible, we clean because that too is the spirit of responsibility“, he added. He said he was aware that there was “operating losses” for highways.
The Peasant Confederation calls for continued mobilization
“We make the choice not to abandon the peasants, not to abandon this demand on income and prices” paid to farmers, explained Friday on franceinfo Laurence Marandola, national spokesperson for the Peasant Confederation. The union chose to continue the mobilization while the FNSEA and the Young Farmers called on Thursday to suspend the blockades in France.
“We remain mobilized“, says the spokesperson. At this time, the Peasant Confederation is still present on six blockages in particular”in Isère, Loire-Atlantique or even in Vaucluse“. Laurence Marandola talks about “hundreds of farmers still mobilized” this day. “We are the only union today to be officially mobilized but we know that there are many farmers to whom it speaks“Laurence Marandola also admits that he doesn’t understand.”why other unions gave up“.
This mobilization must continue in the coming days, she explains. “There is no question of abandoning the farmers when the announcements were largely insufficient“Remains to be defined.”outline“of this mobilization and this strategy”in the coming days“, she concludes.
The convoy leaving Agen towards Rungis will return to the South-West
The farmers thus left the Cheviré bridge to the west of Nantes and the dam which cut the A6 at the large toll of Villefranche-sur-Saône north of Lyon. In Sarthe, the blockades on the highways were gradually lifted from Thursday evening.
Likewise, the convoy which left Agen for Rungis and part of which was blocked by the gendarmes on the bridges of the Loire will head back to the South-West, announced José Perez, co-president of Rural Coordination 47: “We are not going to fight every day against the gendarmerie or anyone.”
Barriers lifted this Friday
In Ile-de-Franceall the highways cut for several days have reopened, according to Sytadin, the road information site.
Around Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), the highway blockages were all lifted this Friday morning. In the Tarn-et-Garonne, the most blocked department for two weeks, the 70 kilometers of the A62 between Montauban and Agen were freed around 5 a.m. this Friday morning. The Montauban bypass on the A20 reopened this Friday morning at 6 a.m. between Caussade and the North Industrial Zone.
Several highways will not reopen immediately. Degraded by the actions of farmers, it will take time to restore them before welcoming usual traffic again. This is the case on the A49 in Bourg-de-Péage in the Drôme for example, where the road services have been working since the morning to clear the roadway.
Erwan Chassin
Blockages that persist
In Isère, the dam on the A43 at Saint-Quentin-Fallavier is maintained. Around ten tractors and around forty demonstrators are still on site on Friday, at the call of the Peasant Confederation. “We did not obtain what we are fighting for: an income worthy of the name“, explained to AFP Isabelle Douillon, a farmer from the Rhône, deploring that “agro-ecological standards risk jumping because the FNSEA has achieved its goals” on the use of pesticides.
In the Bouches-du-Rhônefarmers have decided to maintain the blockage of the A51 motorway near Aix-en-Provence for an “indefinite” period.
New dams are also planned in the Eastern Pyrenees this Friday, notably in Prades in the afternoon.