The Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau warned farmers on Sunday that there would be a “zero tolerance” in case of “lasting blockage” roads, before a new round of industry mobilization starting on Monday.

Last week, Bruno Retailleau met with agricultural union leaders to discuss “have a dialogue and to tell them the limits”.he said on the Grand Jury RTL/M6/.Le Figaro/Public Sénat.

“Three limits”

While the right to demonstrate is guaranteed by the Constitution, the Minister referred to “three limits: no damage to property, no damage to people, and no entrenchment, no lasting blockage because otherwise it will be zero tolerance”he continued, adding that he would not hesitate to “to mobilize to restore traffic flow.

In response to a journalist’s question as to whether he would be “firmer” than his predecessor had been a year earlier, when he had been “tolerated” that farmers dump slurry in front of prefectures or spray them with manure, Bruno Retailleau replied: “I didn’t talk about manure, I didn’t talk about symbolic action as long as there is no degradation of property, personal injury or blockage, obviously.” He said he had engaged the “dialogue” with trade unions, “precisely to avoid any slippage”..

“Double standards

The Minister also drew a distinction between the farmers’ mobilization and that announced by the railway workers for the end of the year. “The railway workers, some of them – not all – regularly take working French people hostage.”he asserted. “Between farmers who can no longer make a living from the fruits of their labor and railway unions who want to hold the French hostage, there’s a double standard.”he continued.

Less than a year after an unprecedented movement of anger in the countryside, which in January led to the blocking of sections of freeway across the country, the main farmers’ unions are calling on their troops to demonstrate again.

They continue to denounce bureaucracy and low farm incomes, arguing thatdespite emergency aid and government announcementsthey’re not there yet. They also reject the free-trade agreement between the EU and the Latin American countries of Mercosur, as does the government, which assures them that it will use the same resources as the EU. “all means to block it.