PARIS: Farmers drove tractors into central Paris on Friday to put new pressure on President Emmanuel Macron, who promised to meet to discuss their grievances but later canceled the event.
French farmers have become part of a Europe-wide movement against environmental regulations and competition from cheap imports from outside the EU, protesting low wages.
They demanded a response from the government ahead of the opening of the country’s popular agricultural fair, Salon Agriculturique, in Paris on Saturday.
“The aim is to create some pressure before the fair opens,” said Damien Greffin, head of the Paris region of grower and main agricultural association FNSEA.
Farmers went on a nationwide strike last month until the government promised change.
But Prime Minister Gabriel Attal failed to impress the opposition with new measures announced on Wednesday and all eyes are now on Macron, who has to visit the farm every Saturday.
On Thursday Macron said he would hold a discussion there “with all actors in agriculture” to “show the future of the economy”.
But when Macron registered the radical ecological group Soulevements de la Terre (“Uprising of the Earth”), the interior minister recently tried to stop them by calling them “eco-terrorists”.
After protests from farmers’ unions, the opposition, politicians and even the government, the Soulevements group was not invited and Macron’s office said “a mistake” had been made.
But the damage was done when FNSEA director Arnaud Rousseau called Macron’s initiative “racist” and said he would not participate in “anything that does not allow speech in good conditions”.
Facing calls for protests, Macron’s office said on Friday that it had canceled the event entirely and added that it would meet with farmers’ organizations before the fair opens on Saturday.
Attal vowed to “support agriculture where important national interests are at stake” on Wednesday, explaining that the agriculture bill did not please farmers.
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But farmers are still blocking roads, burning tires and closing shops, saying they want more.
Police officials told AFP they found farmers’ movement “not easy to control” in some parts of the country.
About 30 tractors entered Les Invalides, near the French Parliament, in central Paris on Friday morning. It was planned to be held in the afternoon upon the request of the authorities.
The second convoy then entered Paris and camped near the agricultural exhibition area in the west of the city.
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FNSEA confirmed that this year’s fair, an important event for farmers, citizens and politicians every year, would be “highly political” but expressed hope that it would also be “highly political”. “time to celebrate.”
