Slurry deposited in front of administrative buildings, tires burned in front of the Agen prefecture, roadblocks with agricultural machinery... A week after starting on the A64, in Occitanie, the angry movement of the farmers does not weaken.
On the contrary, it has spread throughout the country and now affects 80 departments despite the desire of the public authorities to find a way out of the conflict as quickly as possible, with the announcement of the first concrete measures as demanded by the operators.
Consultation continues between the executive and agricultural union organizations.
After the FNSEA and the Young Farmers (JA) received Monday in Matignon, the Rural Coordination (CR) and the Peasant Confederation ("Conf'") were received by the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, and his Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, this Tuesday.
Despite this start of dialogue, these three unions have not called for lifting the blockages.
“
The blocking of roads in the country is a way to quickly obtain decisions
,” indicates Arnaud Rousseau, the president of the FNSEA, the majority union, who excludes
“at this stage a possible blockade of Paris,”
unlike the departmental officials of the Paris basin.
Arnaud Rousseau, who brought together the board of directors this Wednesday, was to announce in the evening around forty demands centered around three themes:
“The dignity of the profession”
,
“the fair income”
, and
“the exercise of the profession” ,
supposed to cover the expectations of the demonstrators.
On the ground, farmers are more determined than ever to make their plight heard.
At the risk, through certain actions, of no longer hearing the calls for non-degradation of property and people that their leaders have launched.
Thus, in front of the Agen prefecture, activists from the CR, the second agricultural union behind the FNSEA and in front of the "Conf'", set fire to tires and bales of grass wrapped in plastic film, raising fears an overflow of the situation, as was the case in Puy-en-Velay, in 2022, where the prefecture was set on fire by “yellow vests”.
“The situation is explosive, we will not let go until we are heard, the public authorities are ignoring us,”
protests Patrick Franken, of the CR, vice-president of the Chamber of Agriculture of Lot-et-Garonne.
There are many young people present this evening who can no longer stand not selling their agricultural products above their cost price and not being able to earn a salary.
The firefighters finally intervened, a few hours after the start of this action, to put out the fire, the demonstrators returning to their blocked location not far away, on the A62.
Read also: Anger of farmers: faced with his first crisis, Gabriel Attal under pressure
“We hold the State responsible”
Elsewhere in Brittany, tension is also high.
“Our end will be your hunger”
, we can read on Jean-Gabriel Riaud's tractor, in front of the commercial zone of Bain-de-Bretagne, on the edge of the dual carriageway which links Rennes to Nantes, where 70 farmers are gathered .
The Bretons took time to join the national movement but are now well mobilized.
At the call of the CR, a large demonstration must take place this Thursday in front of the Rennes prefecture where around a hundred tractors from three regions - Normandy, Pays de la Loire and Brittany - must converge.
Fishermen are also expected there.
They are renowned for the violence of their actions, such as this demonstration which led to the burning of the Parliament of Brittany in 1994 by a distress rocket.
In the south of the country, in Ariège, farmers are still very affected by the accidental death of Alexandra Sonac, a breeder from the region, and her 12-year-old daughter on Tuesday.
The town of Saint-Félix-de-Tournegat, where the thirty-year-old raised Limousin cows, is in mourning and has walled itself in silence.
A white march is planned for Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in Pamiers, near the dam where the tragedy took place.
“This march, organized by farmers, will leave from the Pamiers agricultural high school.
We will place a banner and flowers near the scene of the accident
,” specifies Sébastien Durand, mayor of Saint-Félix-de-Tournegat, where the farmer was also a municipal councilor.
For his part, Alexandra Sonac's husband, also hit by the car at the scene of the blockage, survived the accident.
He is hospitalized in serious condition, but his life is no longer in danger.
“It is a tribute with dignity and respect.
There will be no political speeches or demands.
It’s open to anyone who wants to walk with us
,” continues Sébastien Durand, himself a farmer.
The situation is explosive, we will not let go until we are heard, the public authorities are ignoring us
Patrick Frankein, of Rural Coordination, vice-president of the Chamber of Agriculture of Lot-et-Garonne
Not all unions are on the same wavelength.
A spokesperson for the “Conf'” in Vaucluse, Laurent Thérond, describes the leaders of the FNSEA as
“pyromaniac firefighters”
by criticizing their “productivist” approach and their proximity to agro-industry and politicians.
“We hold the State responsible for the current situation of farmers
,” underlines Laurence Marandola, spokesperson for “Conf’” and farmer in Ariège.
She calls on her activists to mobilize.
In the Rhône, around a hundred farmers have been blocking the A47 since Wednesday near Mornant, near Givors.
“We arrived at 3:30 p.m. with our tractors on the highway.
We set up a marquee for eating and bales of straw for sleeping.
It’s a total blockage,
says Bruno Ferret, an arborist in Chabanière, in the Rhône.
Many motorists who pass by us honk their horns in solidarity.
We expect a rapid political response from the government.
Farmers have nothing left to lose.
It is in the government's interest to put an end to this conflict as quickly as possible so that it does not boil over and reach Paris, particularly during the Agricultural Show in a month."
The government could intervene as early as Friday
(see our article opposite)
.
Gabriel Attal is committed to going quickly to the field, to a farm or to a blockage point, to make concrete announcements.