A parade of tractors blocked all traffic across the Pont de l’Europe in Strasbourg on the afternoon of Monday. The blockade was lifted in the evening. This symbolic operation was organized jointly by farmers belonging to the local branch of the FNSEA agricultural union and their German counterparts. Together, they wanted to express their opposition to the free-trade agreement negotiated between the European Union and the Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia) as the G20 summit was starting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Monday.
This Strasbourg mobilization was one of several organized by the FNSEA in association with the Young Farmers union (JA). According to this union, “85 demonstration points” were identified on Monday, with more expected on Tuesday. The watchword: “Don’t upset the French,” in the words of the FNSEA. For example, the partial blockade of national highway 118, near the Villacoublay military airbase, outside Paris, set up by farmers from the Paris region late on Sunday with around 20 tractors, was suspended early Monday afternoon.
In Le Cannet-des-Maures, southern France, some 300 farmers placed a mound of earth on the road and planted crosses symbolizing the death of French agriculture, threatened, according to them, by the free trade agreement with the Mercosur countries, which the European Commission would like to see completed rapidly.
Lightning strikes
In Montpellier, around 200 people hung signs from towns in the region on the gates of the prefecture. They then covered the Trois Grâces fountain on Place de la Comédie with tarpaulin and deposited manure around it. In the late afternoon, “fires of anger” were lit more or less simultaneously in numerous towns including, Albi, La Rochelle, Lyon, Bordeaux, Arras, Périgueux and Châlons-en-Champagne.
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Further actions have been planned for Tuesday. Coordination Rurale (CR), the second-largest farmers’ union, is also expected to mobilize through its local branch CR 47 in Lot-et-Garonne, which distinguished itself at the beginning of 2024 with its lightning strike protests. As for the Confédération Paysanne union (CP), it has created a program of rallies on its own themes. On Monday, for example, it set up solar panels in front of the Corrèze Chamber of Agriculture to protest against the nibbling away of land by energy projects.
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The FNSEA, JA, CR and CP seem united in their rejection of the Mercosur agreement: a rare shared opinion. But there are nuances, since the FNSEA does not question free trade agreements as such, but is opposed to signing the treaty with the Latin American countries “as is.” Unlike the other unions, which have been fighting for years against the opening of borders to products that do not meet the same health, environmental or social standards as those set in France and Europe. This is a distortion of competition denounced by many farmers.
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Publish date : 2024-11-19 01:16:00
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