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French PM to visit farm as agricultural unions vow Paris ‘siege’

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal will visit a cattle farm on Sunday, his office said, as agricultural unions prepare to mount a "siege" on the French capital to pressure the government into meeting their demands on pay, tax and regulations.

Published: 28 January 2024 09:18 CET

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

Farmers take part in a blocking of the A62 highway near Agen, southwestern France, on January 27, 2024. Photo: Christophe ARCHAMBAULT/AFP.

The leaders of two of France’s largest farming unions said Saturday that members from the regions around Paris “will begin an indefinite siege of the
capital.”

“All the major roads leading to the capital will be occupied by farmers,” they added.

Farmers from the Lot-et-Garonne region, one of the hotspots of the protest movement in southern France, had already announced their intention to “go to Paris” on Monday.

They intend to blockade the massive Rungis wholesale food market south of the capital.

French farmers are furious at what they say is a squeeze on purchase prices for produce by supermarket and industrial buyers, as well as complex environmental regulations. But the last straw for many was the phasing-out of a tax break on diesel for farm equipment.

Attal’s visit to a cattle farm in the western region of Indre-et-Loire comes two days after he announced a number of concessions following blockades by farmers of major routes into Paris and in the south of the country.

“You wanted to send a message, and I’ve received it loud and clear,” said Attal, who is facing his first major crisis as prime minister.

‘Ready to explode’

Attal said the government would “put an end” to the rising cost of diesel fuel used for farming machinery, a consequence of tax breaks on the fuel having been phased out. There would also be an emergency fund to help cattle farmers battle illnesses among their livestock.

Early on Saturday, some roadblocks were being lifted and traffic began running normally on motorways. But the latest announcement by the FNSEA farmers’ union and the Jeunes Agriculteurs (“Young Farmers”), which together represent most farmers in France, puts the pressure back on Attal.

His concessions have “not calmed the anger, we need to go further”, said FNSEA President Arnaud Rousseau.

“We have a government that doesn’t care about its farmers,” said Lucie Delbarre, general secretary of the Pas-de-Calais FDSEA branch. “As you can see, it’s a pressure cooker ready to explode.”

‘Set a course’

The demonstrators have also attacked free trade agreements between the European Union and food exporters, especially a deal with the South American bloc Mercosur that is still in the works.

One group of protesters hung an effigy of a farmer in overalls from mock gallows by the A10 motorway west of Paris.

But farmers appeared to be divided over whether Attal’s concessions were enough. The government has been trying to keep discontent among farmers from
spreading just months ahead of European Parliament elections, which are seen as a key test for President Emmanuel Macron’s government.

Francois Ruffin, a lawmaker with the left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) party, said the government needed to “set a course for French agriculture”.

“We need to tell it what it should be doing: is its aim to compete with factory farms in Brazil or Ukraine, or is its aim to feed the French properly?”

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Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.