French farmers block roads around Paris to protest low food prices
French farmers in tractors on Friday moved to blockade major roads into Paris as they continued to vent their anger over low food prices and excessive red tape. They also shut down long stretches of some of France's major highways.
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The Paris branch of the farmers FNSEA union said roadblocks would be set up on the main commuter axes around the city. However there are no plans to enter Paris itself.
Earlier Friday the main motorway linking the capital with the northern city of Lille and Belgium was blocked by tractors and bales of hay, causing lengthy traffic jams.
Some 60 blockades and demonstrations throughout the country were reported on Friday.
The encirclement of the capital follows days of disruption on motorways as well as tractor convoys through major cities and protests in front of government buildings.
Concessions expected
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, facing his first major crisis, was expected to announce a series of concessions as he responds to industry demands during a visit to a farm on Friday in the mountain village of Montastruc-de-Salies, near the Spanish border.
Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau promised farmers that Attal would deliver an “array of responses”.
Industry workers have vowed to carry on with their disruptions if they are not satisfied the government is doing enough to help them.
In an effort to subdue anger, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Friday said that fines of up to 2 percent of revenues would be handed to food distribution companies that fail to give French farmers fair prices under the country's Egalim law.
Le Maire had previously spent months pressuring food giants like Carrefour and Danone to lower their prices on the back of a spike in inflation – a move that angered farmers who say they’ve been unfairly impacted by the drive to lower consumer prices.
Farmers are also upset over a government tax on tractor fuel, cheap imports of foreign food, access to water, excessive red tape and environmental rules.
Green Deal pressure
France is the European Union's biggest agricultural producer.
The French protests were a spillover from neighbouring Germany and the Netherlands.
Dutch farmers took to the streets over a decision to slash the country’s cattle breeding industry, while German famers were riled over reductions to subsidies on agricultural diesel.
Both cases related to regulations imposed by the EU as part of its Green Deal to drastically reduce carbon emissions.
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