The farmers’ movement is intensifying in France. The road blockage has spread beyond the A4. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is due to meet the president of the FNSEA, the main agricultural union, this Monday, January 22.
From Mayenne to Haute-Garonne, via Loiret, French farmers are still making their anger heard. The movement, which began on Thursday January 18 in Toulouse where hundreds of farmers demonstrated, is intensifying in France. The ongoing blockage of the A64 motorway, between Toulouse and Tarbes, has inspired others, notably near Montauban on the A20 and at the motorway exits of Castelsarrasin and Castelnaudary, reports La Dépêche.
The executive is trying to ease tensions, Emmanuel Macron asked the prefects to speak with farmers who are demanding better consideration from the State. The Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, is traveling to Cher this Saturday, January 20, to meet milk producers. And as the demonstrators had requested on Thursday, the president of the Federation of Farmers’ Unions (FNSEA) will finally meet the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, Monday, January 22.
These local demonstrations echo a more general movement in Europe and could lead to a major national demonstration, informs Le Figaro. In the meantime, “we are going to organize a regional event probably next week in Occitanie”, announced to the daily, Cécile Imart, head of the FNSEA in Tarn.
Like their German or Polish counterparts, the farmers are demanding the urgent release of the envelopes promised by the State and the rehabilitation of the consumption tax exemption rate on energy products. The gradual elimination of this tax advantage in 2024 would force them to pay more for the diesel used by their agricultural machinery.