The Fédération nationale des syndicats d’exploitants agricoles (FNSEA) and its ally Jeunes agriculteurs (JA) will relaunch mobilization on Monday and Tuesday against the European Union’s proposed free-trade agreement with the Mercosur countries.
The majority FNSEA-JA union alliance kicks off a new round of protests on Monday. agricultural mobilizationwith symbolic actions. On the agenda, no freeway blockades, but “fires of anger“.
Less than a year after a wide-ranging movement of anger in the countryside, which in January led to blockades of sections of freeway across the country, the agricultural unions are once again calling on their troops to demonstrate, but in scattered order, in the run-up to their professional elections in January.
Battered by poor harvests and emerging animal diseases, they feel they have yet to reap the rewards of last winter’s anger: the implementation of the 70 commitments then made by the Attal government has been slowed by the dissolution of the National Assembly. And they feel that standards are as complex as ever, and revenues insufficient.
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While last year’s mobilization was fuelled by taxes on agricultural fuel (GNR), this year it’s the completion of the European Union’s proposed free-trade agreement with the Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) that could set the world alight.
“We will continue to oppose“
Despite opposition from French politicians and agricultural players alike, the European Commission, pushed by countries such as Germany and Spain, seems determined to sign this agreement by the end of the year, which will enable Latin American countries to sell more beef, chicken and sugar duty-free in Europe.
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This is why the Fédération Nationale des Syndicats d’Exploitants Agricoles (FNSEA) and its ally Jeunes Agriculteurs (JA) have chosen to relaunch mobilization on Monday and Tuesday, the dates of a G20 summit in Brazil. “We will continue to oppose” to the agreement, assured Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, on a trip to Argentina ahead of the G20, seeking to “reassure farmers“.
Farming today “an emergency situation”.
In the field, mobilization, which could “last until mid-December“The protest will take the form of rallies in front of prefectures and on squares or traffic circles called “of Europe“. Thus, members of the FNSEA and JA are planning to symbolically occupy the “pont de l’Europe“linking Strasbourg to the German town of Kehl.
“In poultry, over 180,000 tonnes will flood the chicken breast market segment. In corn, 70 molecules banned in France are authorized in Brazil, yet bulk carriers will unload the merchandise in European ports!“These Bas-Rhin members express their indignation in a press release. These actions are above all symbolic, following the example of the dumping of waste on Friday in front of the Tarascon tax center (Bouches-du-Rhône), renamed “Brazilian embassy“or a funeral convoy planned for Monday in the Gers.
On Monday evening, “fires of anger“At local level, operators are continuing to tarpaulin village signs or rename them after South American Mercosur towns, as in the Somme and Cantal regions. While a few snail mail operations could disrupt traffic, the aim of the mobilization is not to “disrupt traffic”.block” or “to annoy“to get the message across that agriculture is alive and well today”.an emergency situation, dramatic in some places“said FNSEA president Arnaud Rousseau on BFMTV on Sunday.
“If others have other modes of action, want to use violence or, as I’ve heard, want to (…) starve Toulouse, that’s not our mode of action.he stressed, referring to the calls of some leaders of the Coordination rurale (2nd largest farmers’ union) who have proposed in recent days to “take action against the farmers”.encircle“orstarve“some metropolises.