the Place de l’Etoile evacuated, 66 arrests made by the police

On the Place de l’Etoile, the tractors leave the area around the Arc de Triomphe, escorted by bikers from the National Police. 66 people were arrested according to a police count sent to BFMTV.

The Rural Coordination farmers’ demonstration disperses. While cleaning operations are underway at the Etoile roundabout, exit and access no. 3 of the A4 motorway have been reopened, announces Sytadin.

On the air of France 3 Occitanie, Marc Fesneau says that “we will have to tell ourselves that making the law is not on the corner of a table in ten minutes, otherwise we are not making the law well .”

“There are negotiations which have just ended, so we need to continue working to ensure that, by the time we modify elements in a future law, we need operators, distributors, processors sit around the table and ensure, first, that we put French products on the stalls and then that they are paid their fair remuneration”, launched the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau this Friday March 1st in the morning.

The Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, guest of France 3 Occitanie, speaks about the “punch” actions of this Friday morning. “We put a lot of answers on the table which are starting to be deployed, I am thinking for example of MHE, which we also did on viticulture (…)”, recalls Marc Fesneau.

“There is a need to regain confidence, there is a need to continue working. Sunday evening, everything will not be resolved. I have no advice to give to anyone: when there is such a anger and such a loss of income, patience is easy in my place and less easy in theirs,” said the Minister of Agriculture.

Marc Fesneau also emphasizes that he is “at work and the door is always open for dialogue”.

“Afterwards, as soon as we carry out actions like this which disorganize and which also put people at risk from a security point of view, it seems to me that it is better to sit around a table to try to work,” said the minister.

Guest of the Face-to-face with Apolline de Malherbe on RMC and BFMTV, Clémentine Autain, MP for La France insoumise, reiterates her position on free trade treaties which “must be stopped”, she says.

“There are free trade treaties which continue to be discussed and voted on at European level,” according to Clémentine Autain.

“We have a government that is not capable of listening and acting to initiate a process that finally resolves farmers’ problems.”

And added: “Today we have a situation which is not at all resolved. You know, farmers cannot make a living from their work. What has been done by the government is to listen to the proposals made by the FNSEA which favors agro-industry”, adds the MP for Seine-Saint-Denis.

Following the surprise demonstration organized this Friday morning around the Arc de Triomphe, at the call in particular of the Rural Coordination, 13 arrests, including that of Patrick Legras, were carried out by the police, learned BFMTV from a police source.

Guest of the show Apolline Matin on RMC, Frédéric Ferrand, a member of the Haute-Saône Rural Coordination, announces that “the day is done”.

“Everything we planned to do is finished. But in any case we will not stop there, our profession is doomed if we do nothing.”, launched the farmer to our colleagues, ensuring that the actors of the agricultural world would “continue to make people hear [leur] farmer’s voice.

According to Sytadin, “all of the lanes of the A4 motorway towards Paris in the commune of Saint-Maurice have been returned to traffic”.

However, exit no. 3 of the A4 motorway “is closed for an indefinite period”, specifies Sytadin, as the demonstrators are still there. At the same time, “access to the A4 motorway towards Paris from the D214, the Quai de la République (D103) and the rue du Maréchal Leclerc in the commune of Saint-Maurice is also closed.”

On BFMTV, before his arrest on the Place de l’Etoile, Patrick Legras explained that “for three days, we have been made fun of at the European level.”

“We signed a free trade agreement with Chile, with Kenya, we were given a nature restoration law which will further handicap our food sovereignty both at the European level and at the French level”, listed the representative of Rural Coordination.

Patrick Legras finally estimated that the gathering of farmers this Friday morning was “a nod to our leaders who took over the International Agricultural Show in force on Saturday”, organized “to show that we also know how to invest Paris and the Arc de Triomphe.

According to the Sytadin network, the farmers’ demonstration has repercussions on traffic on the A4 motorway towards Paris.

The “two right lanes” are particularly blocked for tractors to circulate. Earlier, Sytadin announced that the A4 motorway had been closed towards Paris, between Charenton and Porte de Bercy, the demonstrators were at exit no. 3 of the motorway.

In total in Île-de-France, at 7:05 a.m., 91km of traffic jams were recorded by Sytadin, a figure that is in the high average for daily traffic in the Ile-de-France region.

Patrick Legras, representative of Rural Coordination, was arrested by the police for prohibited assembly and the offense of obstructing traffic.

While dozens of demonstrators and a few tractors gathered early this morning around the Arc de Triomphe, the police were also present in large numbers according to our reporter on site.

Traffic was also able to resume, thanks to the intervention of mobile gendarmes who killed the hundred or so farmers present on the Place de l’Etoile.

Hello everyone, and welcome to this live broadcast dedicated to a new mobilization of angry farmers in Paris, this Friday March 1st in the morning. For 4 hours, farmers have taken over the Place de l’Etoile at the top of the Champs-Elysées, notably depositing bales of hay before a few tractors came to block the roundabout. In a post on the X network, Rural Coordination says “converge towards Paris”.