French farmers call off border blockade after talks with Prime Minister Barnier

RFI

20 November 2024 at 3:05 pm·1-min read

A French farmer rides his tractor with a banner reading "Macron if you're going to Rio don't forget your rednecks" on the RN118 road at the start of a nationwide protest against EU-Mercosur agreement with farmers feeling they have yet to reap the rewards of last winter's mobilisation near Velizy-Villacoublay, southwestern Paris on 17 November, 2024.

French farmers protesting pay and conditions and a prospective EU-Latin America trade deal have lifted a blockade on the Spanish border after an expression of support from Prime Minister Michel Barnier.

The hard-line farmers' union Coordination Rurale (CR) lifted its roadblock for heavy trucks on the A9 motorway on Wednesday, which links south-western France with Spain's northeast.

Organisers had earlier said that they intended to maintain the barricade, designed to provoke shortages of produce in French supermarkets.

Barnier also spoke with another CR branch from the western Lot-et-Garonne region by phone.

"Your Prime Minister knows and respects farmers. I will do everything I can ... uphold the very many commitments that have been made," said Barnier – a former agriculture minister – in comments captured by multiple media cameras.

Taking to social media, Barnier posted on X: "I hear the anger, the tension and the incomprehension of farmers about the proposed EU-Mercosur agreement. France is firmly opposed to it."

Concessions 'not honoured'

So far the French political class – including President Emmanuel Macron – has echoed rural opposition to the Mercosur deal.

Barnier's office stated that he had also spoken to Arnaud Rousseau – head of the heavyweight FNSEA farmers' union – by phone.

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Concessions 'not honoured'

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