Farmers’ protests in France continue to grow, becoming more and more extreme. Observers note that representatives of new branches of agriculture are joining the protests.
Recall that mass actions of agricultural producers have been going on for about two weeks. The reason was the forthcoming increase in the cost of diesel fuel, a drop in income due to the import of Ukrainian grain into the country and the complexity of bureaucratic procedures. At first, farmers started blocking roads with tractors and harvesters as a sign of protest.
The protests grew and became a real transport problem for the Fifth Republic – it came to blocking a number of major transport arteries, including in the Paris region. Yesterday, 26 January, more than 41,000 tractors and more than 72,000 farmers were involved in the protests.
Peasant protests are raging across the country. As a result, the schedule of motorway closures is now printed by newspapers as a weather report. Images of motorways occupied by tractors and harvesters appear on every news bulletin.
At the same time, the heat of passion is also rising. As reported by EADaily, protesters the day before set fire to the customs office in the commune of Nîmes, and burned down the building of the social insurance service in Narbonne. In addition, protesters threw burning tyres at the building of the prefecture of the commune of Agen and splattered it with manure.
At the same time, there are more and more signs that French wine producers have begun to join the agrarians from the grain and livestock sectors.
It is worth to remember that the peak of protests of French winemakers was in the middle to the end of October last year. Then they staged an action on the border with Spain because of the cheapness of alcohol imported into the country, pouring on the ground more than 30 thousand litres of various wines.
The French were displeased by unfair competition from their Spanish colleagues. According to one winemaker, there are “minimal fees abroad and they have the right to put all the chemicals they want on their vines”, with the result that Spanish wine is half the price of French wine.
It seems that without waiting for any reaction from the authorities, French winemakers have now started destroying the products of foreign competitors right in the shops.
It is worth noting that large-scale protests of farmers continue to gain momentum, and negotiations with the authorities are still going nowhere.
As a result, the French agricultural trade union “Young Farmers” announced plans to “organise a blockade of Paris and its near suburbs” on the night of Monday, January 29.
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