Tension rose a notch on Wednesday for the second consecutive day in Agen, on the sidelines of the farmers' mobilization.
Several incidents were noted at the end of the day after a stormy meeting in the prefecture with Rural Coordination.
In the absence of concrete announcements from a representative of the Ministry of Agriculture, the members of CR47, accustomed to punchy actions, came out of the building in anger, spraying the facade with slurry and setting fire to the building. tires and other waste in front of the gates.
Big fire in front of the prefecture, which is also sprayed with slurry in #Agen #AgriculteursEnColere pic.twitter.com/lAqbSPTuSb
— Elodie Viguier (@elodieviguier) January 24, 2024
The prefecture's services told BFMTV that they were brought together "in a crisis unit", without staff confinement, when the building was targeted.
The CRS finally intervened protecting the entrance to the prefecture.
The #Agen prefecture under high protection while the #AngryFarmers threaten to bring down the building gates.
pic.twitter.com/D5ojmNyRPM
— Clément Lanot (@ClementLanot) January 24, 2024
The union, which controls the Chamber of Agriculture of Lot-et-Garonne, had warned that it would take action if it did not obtain satisfaction during this interview.
“We wanted to have tangible elements to communicate to colleagues but we got nothing, what does that mean, they don't work in the ministries?
», Launched Karine Duc, co-president of the departmental union.
“If there are no tears (…), nothing succeeds”
“Waiting until Friday to have announcements is taking a lot of risks.
The longer we wait, the stronger the measures will have to be,” she added, while farmers got back on their tractors to dump tanks in front of other buildings in the city.
“If the State does not take a step towards us, it will be considered disconnected, and against farmers,” continued the co-president of the Lot-et-Garonne Rural Coordination.
Karine Duc (co-president of the Rural Coordination of Lot-et-Garonne): “If the State does not take a step towards us, it will be considered to be against the farmers” pic.twitter.com/7DcMJyZg5w
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) January 24, 2024
“In France, if there are no tears and blood, nothing succeeds.
Today, we did everything to ensure that things went more or less peacefully, tomorrow I won't guarantee you anything,” added Serge Bousquet-Cassagne, president of the Chamber of Agriculture and figure of CR47.
Earlier in the day, farmers dumped a bale of straw at a McDonald's restaurant in the city.
Already on Tuesday, agricultural waste had been deposited in front of several buildings in the State of Agen, including that of the Departmental Directorate of Lot-et-Garonne territories and on SNCF tracks.
The beginnings of a fire were quickly extinguished by firefighters.