French farming protests: woman dies after car hits road blockade

Three people questioned on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter after collision in Pamiers, south of Toulouse

Tue 23 Jan 2024 17.15 CET

First publish

A woman has died in southern France after a car hit a roadblock set up by farmers taking part in growing anti-government protests.

The woman, a farmer in her 30s, was killed at 5.45am when a car went through a warning barrage and collided at speed into bales of straw piled up to stop traffic in Pamiers, Ariège, to the south of Toulouse. Her husband and teenage daughter were seriously injured. The three people in the car, all Armenian nationals, were being questioned on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter.

Olivier Mouysset, a local prosecutor, said early results of the investigation suggested the car, carrying a couple and a friend, had not rammed the barrier intentionally. In the dark, the car ran into a wall of straw bales at the roadblock, hit the three people and only came to a halt when it crashed into a tractor’s trailer, Mouysset said.  

 

The farming protests – calling on the government to cut red tape and taxes and ensure better prices for produce – have presented Emmanuel Macron’s newly appointed prime minister, Gabriel Attal, with his first major headache as convoys of tractors continued to block key roads across France on Tuesday and farmers held demonstrations in towns.

Attal wrote on social media that “the nation is devastated” by the farmer’s death at the roadblock.

Macron said he had asked his government “to offer concrete solutions” to the farmers’ problems. “My thoughts go out to the victims and their loved ones who are mourning them,” he said, calling Tuesday’s collision “a drama that has devastated us all”.  

Attal met farming unions on Monday night but did not assuage their anger. From Tuesday morning, farmers blocked roads across the country, including the area around Toulouse in the south-west, to Isère in the south-east, and Beauvais in the north.

“We’re prepared for anything, we’ve got nothing to lose,” said Josep Perez, a protester interviewed by BFM TV at a roadblock in the south-western fruit-growing region around Agen, where traffic on the A62 motorway had been disrupted.

Farmers on Tuesday drove to the prefect’s office in Agen and dumped piles of tripe from a local abattoir, threw kiwifruit and splattered the front of the building in red paint. They hung a banner saying: “We won’t die in silence.” 

Arnaud Rousseau, the head of the FNSEA farming union, told RMC radio that the protests could last “a day, a week” or “as long as it takes” for the government to respond. “Every minute, we’re learning of a new roadblock,” he said. Every single département in France would be involved at some point during this week, he said.

Arnaud Gaillot, the head of the Young Farmers union, said: “We won’t lift the roadblocks until the prime minister makes very clear announcements … The time for talking is over, action is needed.”

The government recently put its long-awaited agriculture bill on hold again, saying it wants to hear from farming representatives before including additional measures to support the sector. When Attal met farming representatives on Monday, he promised a number of measures would be announced by the end of the week, according to the agriculture minister, Marc Fesneau.  

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/23/french-farming-protests-woman-dies-after-car-hits-hay-bale-blockade?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1706027709