The big peasant evening will not take place.
At the end of a week of widespread protests, some of the breeders, wine growers and other cereal farmers were to put an end to the blockages on Thursday, in accordance with the call from the FNSEA and Young Farmers, before returning to the farm.
Witness, the emblematic convoy of peasants leaving Agen to reach Rungis, turned back early Thursday evening.
It seems that the third round of announcements released at midday by the government has defused the rebellion, at least partially.
At daybreak, however, many angry peasants were ready to throw their last strength into the battle, with the aim of reaching Paris.
A “
red line
” for the prefect of police, Laurent Nuñez, who had issued, as of last Sunday, an order prohibiting participation in unauthorized demonstrations in order to facilitate fines and arrests in the event of a gathering on the road public.
Bravache, a handful of diehards, including those from the Rural Coordination, tried to reach the Palais Bourbon before coming across a wall of CRS who had come to surround the headquarters of the national representation.
In total, eight units of mobile forces locked down the capital, including three in the sanctuary of the Champs-Élysées alone, where farmers managed to throw a few bales of straw onto the avenue to disrupt - very briefly - traffic in the direction of Concord.
“Wearyness and anger”
Apart from sporadic incidents, the police did not have to intervene.
Everything was done to reduce the pressure.
As of Thursday morning, the Créteil prosecutor gave instructions to release the 79 farmers placed in police custody the day before after an intrusion into the warehouses of the Rungis wholesale market (Val-de-Marne).
All are members of the Rural Coordination or the Peasant Confederation, and some are women.
“
Around fifteen people were involved in damage, in particular the tearing down of grilles which protected the unloading docks
,” a police officer told Le Figaro.
But the confusing scene did not allow the perpetrators to be identified during the time they were in police custody.
» A preliminary investigation has been opened.
Also read: Anger of farmers: on the road to Rungis, solidarity and the disillusionment of a thwarted convoy
Even if the crisis is easing, a return to normal cannot be expected before the start of the weekend on the roads of France.
“
Before the government's announcements, the situation was still very tense, with farmers divided between determination, fatigue, weariness and anger at not having an answer
,” explains an analyst from the Ministry of the Interior, who is aware that the “
annoyances at the end of conflicts can lead to desperate acts
”.
The diehards “not convinced”
“
If the members of the FNSEA and JA will mostly follow the instructions,” continues this expert, “it is not impossible that sporadic actions will continue, until this weekend, by activists from the Peasant Confederation, the Rural coordination, or even non-union members wishing to show their independence.
»
Thus, in Aix-en-Provence, diehards who said they were "not convinced" by the latest measures arrived in tractors in the parking lot of a supermarket before removing from the frozen section all the products that are not of French origin.
During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, around 200 machines blocked access to 24 supermarkets in Haute-Loire.
Read also Farmers await the conversion of words into actions
According to a latest inventory from the gendarmerie, 150 “
actions
” were recorded on Thursday at 4 p.m. in rural and peri-urban areas.
Overall, it was status quo.
Only a convoy of sixty to one hundred tractors in the colors of the FDSEA of Oise was heading towards Val-d'Oise.
Executive on the lookout
Movements towards Paris were, for their part, imperceptible, while sixteen armored vehicles were deployed in the country, including eight new Centaure models.
From the end of the morning, even before Gabriel Attal revealed his six-part plan, the first ebb of tractors had been observed south of Orléans (Loir-et-Cher) as well as in Eure-et-Loir.
This is still only a timid decline, since last Tuesday, at the height of the mobilization, the territorial intelligence services still recorded 12,000 farmers mobilized and more than 6,000 tractors on the roads of France.
“
Of course, there is unease that comes from afar, with angry people and even people who no longer believe in it, but I do not think for a single second that a farmer is complacent in the blockage
,” assured Thursday Gabriel Attal.
Also read “With animals, it never stops”: how mobilized farmers continue to keep their farms running
It remains to be seen whether the ferment of the sling is really extinguished.
The executive, on the lookout, will find out in the coming days.
At the latest in three weeks, at an Agricultural Show where a world still convalescing will go.