The situation is getting tense for farmers.
Fifteen people were placed in police custody for “obstructing traffic” after being arrested Wednesday morning near the Rungis wholesale market, which angry farmers, gathered in a convoy, were threatening to invade, said the public prosecutor's office. Créteil at the Parisian.
Eighteen people were arrested, but three were released immediately.
The others were placed in police custody at the L'Hay-les-Roses police station (Val-de-Marne).
Tractors reached the gates of the Rungis market this morning.
18 arrests of tractor drivers, Paray gate, while CRS reinforcements are deployed around other MIN gates.
Gendarmes and police continue to filter access.
@marchederungis pic.twitter.com/vYGe12V2tj
— Marine Legrand (@Marine_Lgd) January 31, 2024
The convoy of angry farmers who left the South-West at the call of Rural Coordination started moving again a little before 8 a.m. towards Rungis, the enormous wholesale food market which supplies Paris.
The farmers, on board some 200 to 300 tractors, had spent the night on a farm in Loir-et-Cher between Vierzon and Orléans.
After being blocked several times by the police, the convoy remains closely monitored.
“Reinforcements, particularly armored vehicles, have been sent to Essonne and Loiret to firmly prevent access to Rungis,” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced on X (ex-Twitter) on Wednesday.
100 blocking points in France
In France on Wednesday there were “more than 100 blocking points” and 10,000 demonstrators, the Minister of the Interior calculated early Wednesday morning.
“They do not attack the police, they do not enter Rungis (…) But if they ever had to do it, obviously I repeat, we would not let it happen,” he said. also warned.
Video.
“We want to live with dignity from our profession”: with the farmers who block the A1
“The objective is to dialogue to provide a certain number of concrete answers, and not find ourselves in a situation of blockade,” added the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau, announcing that the government was investing 80 million euros of additional aid on the table for winegrowers and that it would cover “loan interest for the year 2024” to relieve the cash flow of winegrowers in difficulty.
The minister is expected in Brussels on Wednesday afternoon “for a series of interviews aimed at accelerating the treatment of European emergencies”.
Heard in the Senate, the president of the FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau affirmed on Wednesday that he was trying to “call for calm and reason” in the face of the anger of farmers, believing that many “European issues” cannot be “resolved in three days ".