The Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, must announce a series of measures this Friday, January 26, during a trip to Haute-Garonne according to the FNSEA, in order to respond to farmers’ demands.
The mobilization of farmers which has lasted for a week and which has continued to intensify throughout France is holding its breath before the Prime Minister’s announcements. After mobilizations in Ile-de-France since this Thursday, blockades are being organized this Friday, January 26 on the main roads leading to the capital. And faced with pressure on the government, Gabriel Attal plans to unveil the first measures during a trip to farmers planned for this Friday afternoon. According to the FNSEA, it is in Haute-Garonne, the starting point of the mobilization, that the Prime Minister is expected.
Gabriel Attal will be accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, and the Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu. The three men held a working meeting Thursday morning, also with the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, to find the answers to provide to farmers. Announcements on “agricultural issues, particularly on the question of GNR (non-road diesel), livestock breeding and remuneration”, and perhaps simplifications of standards to relax CAP measures, should be made after the details given by Marc Fesneau to the press.
Over the past few days, the Prime Minister has spoken with numerous union representatives from the agricultural sector. On Wednesday evening, the FNSEA and the Young Farmers (JA) sent the government a detailed list of 24 demands and insisted on the need to “immediately help the sectors most in crisis: viticulture and organic agriculture”. Among the demands put forward, the unions are calling for “absolute respect for the Egalim laws” dating from 2018 and 2020 relating to the sharing of value between the different players in the French food chain. The two unions took care to insist on the need to take into account “the entirety” of the demands transmitted. The president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, specified that the expected aid represents an envelope of “several hundred million euros”.
The Prime Minister’s announcements are eagerly awaited by the entire movement, which hopes for concrete and significant measures. At Franceinfo this Friday morning, the president of the FDSEA of Seine-et-Marne, Cyrille Milard, declared that everyone is waiting “for the announcements from the Prime Minister, but we are not waiting for measures, we are not waiting for empty words.” If Gabriel Attal’s announcements do not satisfy the movement, the latter could continue and intensify in the coming days, including a possible blockade of Paris.
