Farmers' “SOS” during a new day of mobilization

AFP

With their tractors or their animals, hundreds of farmers participated again Wednesday in demonstrations in several departments, such as in Aveyron, where dozens of them took up position in front of Rodez Cathedral, forming the letters “SOS”. 

After forming a giant “SOS”, a hundred breeders went on a “transhumance” on foot with a dozen cattle to the prefecture of Aveyron. The demonstrators were responding to a call from the National Federation of Farmers' Unions (FNSEA) and the Young Farmers (JA), whose alliance is the majority in professional elections. 

In Villecomtal-sur-Arros (Gers), the Rural Coordination (CR) announced the end on Wednesday evening of the blockade of the entrance to the Danone production site, where farmers had been taking turns since late Tuesday afternoon. 

In total, the authorities recorded 28 actions in 24 departments involving nearly 1,600 people and 479 agricultural machines, in actions that “target public buildings more”. 

The FNSEA-JA alliance had placed its first week of mobilization under the banner of opposition to the proposed free trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur. But, for its second week of coordinated actions, it had planned to target more specifically what it considers to be “obstacles” to the work of farmers: prefectures, water agencies or offices of the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB). 

In this context, the Minister for Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, warned against “any attack targeting the physical integrity” of OFB agents, one of whom had his car sabotaged last month. 

The prefect of Tarn-et-Garonne announced that he “will file a complaint” after the “damage” (“tags targeting state services, broken windows, projection of manure and oil on the walls of buildings”…) caused during a demonstration involving at least 150 farmers' tractors in Montauban on Tuesday evening at the call of the FDSEA and the JA. 

France Nature Environnement also denounced “violence” by farmers against three environmental protection associations supervised by FNE in Gap (Hautes-Alpes), Coutances (Manche) and Châteauroux (Indre). Complaints have been filed or will be filed in all three cases, according to FNE. 

– “Genevard, nothing but lies” – 

In Aude, it was the third French port in Port-la-Nouvelle, about fifty kilometers north of Perpignan, that about fifty members of the JA with about ten tractors blocked for several hours Wednesday morning to demand more economic support, noted an AFP journalist. 

“Genevard, nothing but lies”, they wrote on the asphalt, in reference to the Minister of Agriculture Annie Genevard. 

Nearly 700 km northwest of Port-la-Nouvelle, in Nantes, around fifty tractors parked in front of the prefecture, some carrying banners proclaiming “Don't break my dream of taking over”, “No country without farmers” or “As a child we dream of it, as an adult we die from it”. 

A cinder block wall was erected around noon in front of the entrance to the prefecture. 

– “Nothing is moving forward” – 

“We denounce the excessive administrative burden on everything we do, the maintenance of ditches, “water storage,” said Mathieu Bouteiller, 34, a member of the JA in Sainte-Pazanne (Loire-Atlantique), who produces milk, cereals and beef. 

In Saint-Omer (Pas-de Calais), a hundred people mobilized with fifty tractors, calling on the institution responsible for maintaining the canals draining this polder area, an expanse of land artificially reclaimed from the water, where farmers suffered from historic flooding a year ago. 

“We find that over the past year, there has not been much work,” estimated Antoine Peenaert, head of the FDSEA for Calaisis, calling for “a multi-year cleaning plan, as well as works to increase the capacity” for water evacuation. 

In Laon (Aisne), according to the Union of Agricultural Unions of Aisne (USAA), affiliated to the FNSEA, 250 farmers toured the administrations, planting bushes in front of the French Biodiversity Office (OFB) branch to remind people “that there are 14 regulations on hedges in France and that we only want one,” said Charlotte Vassant of USAA 

 

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