Farmer protests converge on Paris as French government scrambles to address concerns

French farmers will launch an indefinite "siege" of Paris beginning this Monday, choking off major highways and moving toward the capital as they demand better working conditions. 

Tractors and other vehicles queue on the A16 highway near Beauvais, France, January 29, 2024. The slogan on the tractor reads "Our demise means you'll go hungry" © Stephanie Lecocq / Reuters

For days, nationwide protests have flared across France – Europe's largest agriculture producer, – with farmers angered in part by red tape and environmental policies they say are hurting their bottom lines and rendering them unable to compete with less stringent neighbours. 

Across the country, farmers have used tractors and trucks to block roads and jam traffic. They plan to step up their pressure campaign by establishing eight chokepoints along the major arteries to Paris by Monday afternoon. 

The government plans to mobilise some 15,000 police and paramilitary gendarmes in response, with the forces told to show "moderation".

• French PM to visit farm as agricultural unions vow Paris 'siege'

"We don't intend to allow government buildings, or tax collection buildings, or grocery stores to be damaged or trucks transporting foreign produce to be stopped. Obviously, that is unacceptable," French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said ahead of the planned siege.

He said President Emmanuel Macron had instructed the security operation to ensure both Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport to the north and Orly to the south remain open, and the Rungis international wholesale food market south of Paris continues to operate. 

Police and gendarmes are also under orders to prevent any incursion into Paris itself, Darmanin added.

Mon intervention, à l’issue de la réunion de la cellule interministérielle de crise, concernant les menaces de blocage 👇 pic.twitter.com/ZkoHPlhCJ8

— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) January 28, 2024

Concessions rejected 

The government has been trying to keep discontent among farmers from spreading ahead of European Parliament elections later this year, which are seen as a key test for Macron's government.

During a visit to a farm on Sunday, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal scrambled to address farmers' concerns, after a raft of concessions announced Friday failed to defuse the crisis.

"I want us to clarify things and see what extra measures we can take" to meet farmers' complaints that they face unfair competition, he said.

Attal agreed it was not right that French farmers were forbidden by environmental regulations from using certain products that neighbouring countries, such as Italy, still had the right to use.

Farmers have described being "fed-up" with their conditions, including falling wages, low pensions and mountains of red tape.

• French farmers force concessions from government after blockading motorways

'Change the software'

Arnaud Rousseau, leader of one of the main farmers' unions, FNSEA, said on Sunday that his members expect much more from the government.

"What we need are decisions that we think are going to change the software," he told farmers as he visited a group blocking the A16 motorway north of Paris.

Although some roadblocks were lifted over the weekend, many motorways across France were still barred on Sunday.

The same day, two activists hurled soup at the glass protecting the Mona Lisa painting at the Louvre Museum in a stunt to call attention to the agriculture industry.

FNSEA and the Jeunes Agriculteurs (Young Farmers) plan to start their siege of Paris around 2 pm local time on Monday.

Further south, officials in the city of Lyon said they were expecting farmers to also stage roadblock protests.

🔴🗣️ Fin des 4 % de jachère imposés par l'UE : Marc Fesneau souhaite que la décision soit prise "dans la semaine" par la Commission européenne. #Les4V @MFesneau #AgriculteursEnColere pic.twitter.com/2nI5rbJbrv

— Telematin (@telematin) January 29, 2024

This comes as French farming minister Marc Fesneau said Monday that France wants a decision this week to change EU nature law regulations regarding agricultural surfaces which have to remain fallow under new biodiversity

rules, in order to help the struggling farmers..

Fesneau also told France 2 TV that the government, under pressure from the farmers' protests, was still working on other concessions they could give to farmers in the coming 48 hours to improve their working conditions.