EU Farmers Escalate Protests – France Concedes to Demands
The popular farmer and trucker protests in the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Romania, France and now Belgium are continuing.
Sensing the problematic nature of the uprising, watching the protests escalate to direct confrontation at parliament, and facing considerable political opposition on many domestic issues, the French government of Emmanuel Macron has agreed to the terms of the French farmers. However, the two major labor unions associated with the farmers in France are not asking for the protests to stop until they see the agreement of the French government in writing.
Protesting farmers blockaded multiple roads and camped outside the European parliament building in Brussels on Thursday, ahead of a EU leaders’ summit in the Belgian capital. The demonstrators lit two fires outside and placed their tractors in front of the European parliament building. Farmers have been protesting across Europe against the globalist agenda, rising costs in the agriculture sector and targeted taxes by the various governments.
(Associated Press) – France’s two major farmers unions announced they would lift country-wide blockades Thursday, shortly after the prime minister introduced new measures aimed at protecting their livelihoods that they described as “tangible progress.”
However, farmer activists who have snarled traffic along major highways around Paris said they would stay put at least another day to see the government commitments in writing, and both unions said they would closely monitor any government implementation.
“We don’t want to hear words of love. What we want is proof of love,” said Thierry Desforges, a farm union member at road blockade of the A6 highway in Chilly-Mazarin, south of Paris.
Thousands of French farmers have been demonstrating for a couple of weeks across the country in protests over low earnings, heavy regulation and what they call unfair competition from abroad. Similar protests also have extended across Europe, including at the European Union headquarters in Brussels.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, whose earlier promises to address farmers’ issues had failed to quell the French protests, announced a new set of measures Thursday.
They included tens of millions of euros in aid, tax breaks and a promise not to ban pesticides in France that are allowed elsewhere in Europe — which French farmers say leads to unfair competition. Attal also said France would immediately ban imports from outside the EU that use a pesticide banned in the bloc.
Arnaud Rousseau, president of France’s biggest farmers union FNSEA, and Young Farmers union President Arnaud Gaillot said Thursday that they were calling on their members to suspend the protests.
[…] At the Chilly-Mazarin blockade, Damien Greffin, a FNSEA representative, said farmers still need time to “better analyze the measures” as some appeared to him “a bit deceptive.”
Desforges, a fellow FNSEA member, remained cautious about proposals that concern the EU because “we know how Europe works, the countries still need to agree.”
Regarding domestic proposals, “we really need to wait and see if they are turned into law,” Desforges added. (read more)
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