In France, farmers will resume protests before a major agricultural exhibition

PARIS, 19 Feb — Protests by farmers are taking place throughout France, dissatisfied with the government’s measures to support them; they intend to increase pressure on the authorities ahead of the Salon of Agriculture in Paris, which opens on Saturday.
In Marseille on Monday, farmers drove tractors into the central square in front of the city cathedral and the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations (Mucem). The prefecture advised citizens to avoid the Old Port area in the city center. About 50 tractors from the entire Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region headed to the city to participate in the protests.
Farmers are also blockading the city’s port and airports. The actions are being held at the call of the FNSEA and Jeunes agriculteurs trade unions. On February 1, they called on farmers to stop blocking highways, but announced their intention to continue to put pressure on the authorities to achieve their promises.
“The dissatisfaction has not gone away. The fact that people have returned to work does not mean that the issue is closed,” FNSEA head Arnaud Rousseau said on Europe 1 radio on Monday.
He, however, called for a peaceful holding of the agricultural show, which opens on February 24.
Some of the farmers’ actions are directed against large supermarkets, which, in their opinion, do not comply with the Egalim law on fair prices when purchasing their products. According to radio station France Bleu, farmers in the Hautes-Pyrenees department have been filling up shops with tires, manure and various waste since the weekend. The promotions affected almost all major chain stores: Intermarché, Super U, Aldi, Netto, Lidl and others.
Farmers also monitor foreign trucks as they make deliveries to the store and inspect their products, discarding those that compete with their French counterparts. Promotions are taking place in the departments of Hérault, Rhône, Mayenne, Sarthe and Gard.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is due to hold a press conference on agriculture on Wednesday. Earlier, he said that he would present a draft agricultural law during the International Agricultural Exhibition on February 24 – March 3.
In France, farmer protests have gained momentum in recent weeks. Protesters blocked key highways, blocking traffic with tractors, haystacks and piles of manure. Farmers also bombarded prefectures and government buildings with manure and waste. They demanded recognition of the importance of their activities and condemned government policies in the agricultural sector, which, in their opinion, make them uncompetitive. In particular, farmers opposed the import of agricultural products, restrictions on the use of water for irrigation, increasing the cost of diesel fuel, as well as restrictive measures to protect the environment and the growing financial burden on production.

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