The farmers mobilized from the early hours of this Friday morning were impatiently awaiting rapid-effect measures from Gabriel Attal to respond to their demands.
“I heard you,” said the latter during a visit on Friday to a conventional cattle farm in the small town of Montastruc-de-Salies, in Haute-Garonne.
Gabriel Attal, accompanied by Ministers of Agriculture Marc Fesneau and Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu, detailed his measures to respond to the anger.
The main demand of the FNSEA, the leading agricultural union in France, the Prime Minister announced a return to the increase in taxation of GNR (non-road diesel) that operators use for their agricultural machinery.
The government had recently planned to increase taxation on this fuel by 3 cents per year until 2030.
“On the GNR, we have to face reality.
The truth obliges me to say that even if the reform was accepted and negotiated by the majority union, we must be very clear and very sincere: it cannot work,” explained Gabriel Attal.
“To be clear: I am removing the increase in the price of agricultural RNG.
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“Simplification measures”
Another demand from the peasant world: the Prime Minister announced his intention to simplify the work of farmers who complain about paperwork and administrative standards.
“I say it: farmers (…) want to be in their fields, not in front of their screens (…) So I am making a very clear decision: that of drastically simplifying our procedures and when necessary our standards when they do not make sense”, affirmed Gabriel Attal, announcing “10 immediate simplification measures”.
“Our prefects will look at standard after standard at what we can simplify,” he explained.
Also read: Anger of farmers: fishermen, truck drivers… can the movement extend to other sectors and set the country ablaze?
“Enforce the Egalim law”
The Prime Minister also promised to "enforce the Egalim law", supposed to protect farmers' income, against agri-food manufacturers and mass retailers.
“In commercial negotiations, the farmer is not always sufficiently protected,” he noted.
Earlier in the day, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, had announced a strengthening of controls to prevent “industrialists” and “certain distributors” from circumventing the law.
Controls will be reinforced, confirmed Gabriel Attal, with 100 inspectors from the DGCCRF mobilized.
“We are going to impose three very heavy sanctions in the coming days against three companies which do not respect Egalim,” he said.
“Our hand will not shake,” he assured.
Acceleration of emergency aid
Subject to climatic hazards, farmers complain about the delay in emergency aid from the State.
“We are going to accelerate fully on the emergency aid that is due,” assured the tenant of Matignon, promising “payments from February”.
“We are going to double the emergency fund for Brittany (
recently hit by a storm
),” added Gabriel Attal.
A specific plan to address the crisis facing the viticulture sector will also be put in place and 50 million euros will be allocated to farmers in the organic sector.
Europe and free trade treaties
Gabriel Attal defended the role of the European Union in the remuneration of French farmers.
“Leaving Europe means depriving yourself of 9 billion euros per year,” he recalled, conceding that it was necessary to “simplify the CAP”.
Criticized, free trade treaties with other continents are regularly in the sights of farmers.
“France is opposed to signing the Mercosur treaty,” recalled the Prime Minister.
Intensification of movement
These announcements come as the movement intensified this Friday from the early hours of the day, moving closer to the capital.
Several major axes around Paris (the A1, A13, A6 and A10 motorways in particular) were blocked by columns of tractors.
Across the country, demonstrators attacked state symbols and supermarkets on Thursday, giving the image of radicalizing anger.
More than 55,000 people mobilized, according to a count from the FNSEA, the majority agricultural union close to power, which has been trying for a week to channel a movement started in Occitanie.
VIDEO.
Farmers set fire in front of Agen prefecture
The town of Agen has been the epicenter of the movement for several days.
Motorway blocked since Monday, prefecture and hypermarkets covered in slurry, rail traffic cut: angry farmers are multiplying shock actions, under the leadership of the omnipresent Rural Coordination, customary of brilliant coups.