Tension is rising a notch this week as the executive only has a few days left before the start of the Agricultural Show.
“The anger [of the farmers] is still there” and the expectation vis-à-vis the government “is very strong”, assured Monday morning on the airwaves of Europe 1 the president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau. And while the Agricultural Show will begin this Saturday, February 24 in Paris, it is the ultimatum set by farmers to the executive which is arriving quickly. “We encourage people to maintain the pressure,” said Arnaud Rousseau this February 19 in the morning. The week already promised to be busy with meetings, with a meeting between the majority unions and Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday at the Élysée, then a press conference by the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, devoted to the agricultural crisis on Wednesday, and finally the opening of the Agricultural Show on Saturday. Depending on the announcements, the week should also be marked by numerous mobilizations.
For the moment, however, no national meetings, but rather local initiatives. Thus, on Monday morning, around fifty tractors arrived in Marseille, signs of discontent clearly visible. Manure was also dumped at the foot of the prefecture, as relayed by the CLPRESS press agency on HuffPost. A snail operation also took place on Monday in Dunkirk, reports the FDSEA du Nord on Facebook.
Concretely, this week under high tension, farmers’ demonstrations will be organized locally, in the four corners of the country. The prefectures and sub-prefectures, where negotiations are often held, should be in the sights of the demonstrators. As in recent weeks, certain areas could also be targeted. Finally, Paris, where the major decisions will be made and where the Agricultural Show will be held, could be affected.
Remember that Emmanuel Macron himself is due to inaugurate the high mass of the agricultural world on Saturday. In the absence of announcements deemed sufficient by farmers, the secretary general of FDSEA 82, Jacques Bès, warned, a few days ago on Europe 1, that tension will rise a notch. “A notch above, that means that we are reserving buses to go to Paris to prohibit politicians from entering the Salon,” he warned on Friday, affirming that farmers were ready to be “early in Paris on Saturday morning to block Mr. Macron”.
