Farmers near Paris blocked part of the road leading to the city in protest against the free trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur, which could be signed at the opening of the G20 summit on Monday, a RIA Novosti correspondent reports.
On Monday night, a dozen tractors arrived on the highway southwest of Paris. In the Velizi area, 10 kilometers from the capital, they blocked part of the road in protest against the trade agreement.
“We are here to protest against the agreement with Mercosur, which will be a real disaster for farmers and consumers. It will no longer be possible to track product quality. “We try to produce quality products, but we are on the same level as those who follow different rules.” – said one of the farmers who came to the protest.
On tractors, protesters held up signs with the words: “Manu, stop Mercosur, don’t go deaf!”, “Macron, you’re going to Rio, don’t forget your peasants!”
Since Monday, French farmers across the country have resumed protests over the possible signing of a free trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur, a trading bloc made up of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, as well as unfulfilled promises. by the French authorities. . Some 80 demonstrations are planned in different regions of the country, many of them in front of prefectural buildings and at road junctions.
All the main agricultural unions in the country are calling for protests: FNSEA (National Federation of Agricultural Unions), Jeunes Agriculteurs (Young Farmers) and Coordination rurale (Rural Coordination). Actions are planned for November 18 and 19, but, as the unions say, “this is just the beginning.”
A bill to help farmers, which was passed in the lower house of the French parliament in May after mass unrest, was never considered in the Senate due to the president’s decision. Emmanuel Macron dissolve parliament. According to the unions, the promises made by the government were never fulfilled.
In France, large-scale protests by farmers occurred in late 2023 and early 2024. Protesters blocked key roads, blocking traffic with tractors, haystacks and piles of manure. Farmers bombarded prefectures and government buildings with manure and waste, denouncing government agricultural policies that they say make them uncompetitive. In particular, farmers opposed the import of agricultural products, restrictions on the use of water for irrigation, the increase in the cost of diesel fuel, as well as restrictive measures to protect the environment and the increasing financial burden on the production. At the height of the crisis, columns of farmers on tractors headed to Paris to lay siege to the main Rungis food market in the south of the city. To prevent the action, the capital authorities deployed special forces and armored vehicles.
