PARIS, Jan 30 French authorities are due to announce on Tuesday additional measures to support farmers at a time when farmers launched a blockade on Paris, threatening to deprive the city of access to food, and the country’s President Emmanuel Macron is again going on a foreign tour.
«French Agriculture Minister Marc Fenot said that new measures will be taken starting tomorrow,» cabinet spokeswoman Prisca Thévenot confirmed at a briefing after the ministerial council on Monday.
Macron on Monday held an emergency meeting with ministers on the crisis in agriculture. On Tuesday, when the tractors and trucks reach Paris, Macron will leave the capital again for a two-day visit to Sweden.
Additional measures to pacify the anger of farmers should be announced either by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who will outline the main vectors of government policy in parliament on Tuesday, or by Marc Fenot.
On Monday, Attal spoke for more than 3.5 hours with leaders of farmer unions, who were dissatisfied with his announcements last week and called for continued protests.
Attal traveled to the Occitanie region in the south of the country on January 26, where protests by farmers led by livestock farmer Jerome Bale began. Surrounded by farmers, placing his notes on a haystack, he announced that he had “heard and understood” the problems of the farmers. The prime minister also said that the authorities would refuse to increase the tax on diesel used for agricultural purposes, and recalled that France would continue to oppose the signing of a free trade agreement between the EU and the Mercosur countries, which, according to farmers, will create conditions for unfair competition. Attal also promised to simplify bureaucratic procedures and put pressure on distributors who charge unfair prices for farmers' products.
After this, Bale immediately called on farmers to lift the blockade of the A64 highway. Attal was greeted at the barricades with hot wine, and the media reported on a “well-orchestrated communication campaign.” A video circulated on social networks of Bale quickly handing the Minister of Agriculture, who was accompanying Attal, some piece of paper. Users suggested that it contained his bank account information. Bale later denied this information, however, saying that he «rejected the position» offered to him in exchange for silence.
But this time the farmers intend to go all the way. The French National Federation of Agricultural Trade Unions (FNSEA) and the Jeunes Agriculteurs trade union announced that they intend to organize a complete blockade of Paris to prevent the supply of any goods to the capital. Farmers also plan to organize a “siege” of two key Paris airports — Roissy-Charles de Gaulle and Orly — as well as Europe's largest food market, Rangis, south of the city.
On Monday afternoon, farmers began organizing barricades on all eight highways leading to Paris. The interactive map of the Bison fute portal shows that the closest closures at the entrance to Paris are located at Charles de Gaulle airport and in the commune of Argenteuil, 10 kilometers from the city.
Farmers spend the night on the highway, awaiting new government announcements, ready to stage protests comparable in scale to the “yellow vest” crisis.