French farmers marched again to remind their country and the world of their terminal crisis.
Without official permission
they marched at dawn, with their tractors and trucks, along the Champs-Elysées, the main avenue of Paris, to the Arc de Triomphe, another national icon.
There they unloaded bales of grass, in tribute to the farmers who have committed suicide due to the economic debacle suffered by their farms.
Two young people read the Gospel of the day.
Seven tractors surrounded the monument.
They surrounded the Place de l'Étoile and blocked traffic from 4 in the morning.
The place is symbolic: the Yellow Vests arrived there, an impoverished and angry middle class, which destabilized Emmanuel Macron's government for two years.
“At dawn, the countrymen of the Rural Coordination deposited grass at the level of the Arc de Triomphe.
Anger is always there,” they said in a publication on the social network X.
“The angry farmers plan to have breakfast there,” said one member, Frédéric Ferrand.
“We are determined, we are not going to back down.”
Tractors parked at a protest this Friday near the Chateau de Versailles, on the outskirts of Paris.
Photo: AP
The occupation of the Champs-Élysées surprised the police, who had authorized a march towards the castle of Versailles and not this one.
It is not the first time that farmers occupy the French Capital.
At the end of January they had arrived in Paris to block strategic entrances.
They continued their march towards the
chateau
of Versailles, where they settled with the tractors.
This movement was authorized.
They also carried out a “snail” operation on the A4 highway towards Paris, between Charenton and the Porte de Bercy.
Thousands of motorists were blocked.
Fight at the famous Agricultural Hall
The farmers' anger exploded last Saturday at the Agriculture Show in Paris, when a group did not allow President Macron to inaugurate the exhibition.
He only achieved it four hours later and after the animals and people had received
tear gas
and he had personally debated with the representatives of the camp.
Protests by rural producers have been going on for more than a month in France and other countries.
Photo: AFP
The president remained from 9 in the morning to 8 at night in the Hall, in the middle of a visit protected by the riot police.
He suggested the incidents had been manipulated by Marine Le Pen and the National Rally, as the far-right former National Front is now called.
“What Emmanuel Macron said about our proximity to National Rally is disgusting.
It is very easy to criticize someone who talks loudly and does not do politics.
It discredits us.
Today we have many non-union members.
There is no politics.
It is a deep anger of the agricultural world,” said trade unionist Aurelie Halllain, president of the Rural Coordination of the Eure and Loire, who was present on the Champs-Elysées with her son.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, estimated that “everyone must respect the law.
An undeclared demonstration is always an illegal demonstration.”
But she said the government is taking action and the money is reaching the farmers.”
The Agricultural Show closes on Sunday but the voice of French countrymen will continue to be heard.
C.B.