The conflict with the countryside in
France
transformed this Tuesday into
a total siege on its capital
.
All highways around Paris were blocked on Tuesday.
Some pickets completely prevented traffic, others only symbolically blocked to put pressure on Emmanuel Macron's government and also Brussels to relax the rules for European farmers.
RFI special envoy Nathanaël Vittrant visited the farmers' blockade on the A4 motorway between Reims and the capital.
Farmers' blockade on the A4 motorway between Reims and the capital.
Photo: Bertrand Guay / AFP
Around a large pile of pallets, the male and female farmers who occupy the A4 motorway joke with each other, sometimes with the police.
But this atmosphere of good humor
should not make you forget your anger.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal's intervention at the end of last week failed to calm the anger.
“They have given
in only one of the 185 points that we demanded
, so this week we expect much more from the government and Europe,” says Christophe Parent, local representative of the FNSEA, the main farmers' union.
Protest messages on tractors: "Produce or die."
Photo: Bertrand Guay/ AFP
Europe appears very often in conversations.
French farmers want to take advantage of the indignation that is also expressed in Romania, Poland, Germany, Spain and other countries.
"Our goal today is Paris, but maybe
later it will be Brussels
, obviously with the five or six countries that also have the same problems as us," explains Emmanuel.
There is an issue that is of great concern among farmers.
“We do not understand why we have to compulsorily leave
4% of the land fallow
(uncultivated) when, for example in Ukraine, a large part of the countryside is not cultivated and there
is a lack of cereal in the world
.
Furthermore, we import much more than we export.
At a certain point you have to say enough is enough,” Emmanuel complains.
“The same European standards for everyone”, “
Stop
exports without standards”.
The slogans emblazoned on the tractors are also a reminder that the answer to the unrest of land workers cannot be found only in Paris.
Parisian merchants stockpile supplies
Tractors and trucks try to block circulation,
especially of goods
.
Farmers
hope to block the supply of several cities
, including Paris, where citizens buy many fresh products that come from the Rungis wholesale market where a battalion of tractors is expected to arrive this Monday.
Vadime's Lebanese restaurant, located on Montorgueil Street, in the heart of Paris, is supplied daily at Rungis.
This Monday there were no problems.
But
the boss anticipates any non-delivery.
It is expected that some degree of shortage will begin to be felt at the end of the week.
Photo: Reuters
“We are starting to stockpile products because we don't know if we will then be able to supply ourselves in time or if there will be shortages,” he explains to RFI's Stéphanie Parreaux.
As a precaution, he has placed an order
one and a half times more than usual.
Not far from there, a local customer has just made his purchase.
At the moment,
there is nothing missing in the store
.
And Loup Orseni is not worried.
“If we have to do without some fruit or vegetables, nothing happens, the important thing is that farmers get what they are demanding.
And that the working conditions are easier for them, that the government listens to them."
Both customers and hoteliers believe that, if the situation gets complicated,
it will be more at the end of the week.