French government excludes forceful measures against farmers

MStill, Darmanin warned protesters that there are certain “red lines.”

The Minister of the Interior told France 2 today that “demonstration is a constitutional right” and defended the ongoing negotiations towards an agreement, after farmers intensified their protest in recent days.

“We cannot consider workers as criminals”, he stated, before stressing that the protesters “are not attacking police officers” to present demands that the government considers “legitimate”.

“We gave them clear lines: not to enter Paris, not to block (the Rungis market) and not to block the airports,” he added, a day after Prime Minister Gabriel Attal promised to continue negotiating.

The French Government estimates that around ten thousand people take part in the demonstrations in different parts of the country, as part of a general unrest in the sector that also extends to other European countries.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he will discuss issues related to farmers this week during a meeting in Brussels with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

In an interview with Sud Radio, French Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau announced an 80 million euro package for wine producers aimed at covering losses and increasing liquidity this year, but added that he awaits further proposals “before the end of the week”.

Macron has already made clear France’s opposition to the trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur and called for a review of imports from Ukraine.

Paris also wants some “flexibility” after some of the farmers’ complaints were directed against rules agreed at European level.

The roadblocks with tractors that occur all over Europe, in countries such as Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Poland and Romania, are motivated by various issues, such as cuts in agricultural subsidies and decreasing revenues in an already challenge of rising inflation and energy prices, but the anger of most European farmers seems directed at Brussels, which they accuse of imposing environmental measures on them that are costly and burdened with bureaucracy, in the name of the ‘green transition’.

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