French farmers target Paris and Lyon with roadblocks

 

Farmers have staged blockades on several major highways in France, with union leaders saying the roadblocks will target Paris and Lyon on Monday.  

As protests from farmers restart after the festive period, union leaders say they intend to target Paris and Lyon on Monday - echoing the 'siege of Paris' conducted early in 2024.  

This time, however, only one union is involved - the small but radical Coordination Rurale - so numbers will likely be mush smaller. 

On Monday morning blockades were reported on the A7 near Lyon. 

Several convoys of tractors set off on Sunday from various regions of France, operating rolling roadblocks (opérations escargots) and causing traffic delays on several routes including the RN4 to the east of Paris and the RN10. Police reported that groups of between eight and 15 tractors had mostly dispersed by Sunday evening.  

The Paris police chief on Sunday refused to allow permission for a demo held in front of the agriculture ministry.  

A spokesman for Coordination rurale told French media that the action will last "three, four or five days". 

"It's not a question of blocking the people of Paris, or the people of Île-de-France”, Amélie Rebière told France 3 on Sunday. It will mainly be “tractors from the Ile-de-France region, from neighbouring departments” travelling towards Paris, she added.   

France's newly appointed prime minister François Bayrou is holding a meeting with farming union leaders on Monday, January 13th in an attempt to address their concerns.  

Unions are angry are the EU's new Mercosur deal with South America, which they say exposes them to unfair competition, but are also angry that France's parliamentary stalemate has blocked the release of financial aid that they were promised after the protests in 2024.  

The blocking of the 2025 budget - and subsequent fall of Michel Barnier's government - means that promised funds will not be released until the new government can put together a budget for the year ahead. 

https://www.thelocal.fr/20250106/french-farmers-target-paris-and-lyon-with-roadblocks