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PROTESTS

‘Siege of Paris’ – Which roads are French farmers blockading on Monday?

With threats to target airports, food markets and to 'besiege Paris', the French farmers' protest is not over - here's a look at the location of the latest actions.

Published: 28 January 2024 15:56 CET
Updated: 29 January 2024 09:12 CET
'Siege of Paris' - Which roads are French farmers blockading on Monday?
Farmers use tractors to blockade the A16 highway, near Beauvais, on Sunday. Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

Despite concessions offered by French prime minister Gabriel Attal in a speech to farmers on Friday, the campaign of roadblocks has not ended, in fact some farming unions are ramping up the rhetoric.

The largest farming union, the FNSEA, has announced that it intends to continue the campaign in the hope that the government will go further towards meeting their demands – its leader Arnaud Rousseau called on members to remain “calm but determined”.

The union says it hopes to continue actions at least until Thursday, the date of a key European Council meeting in which Emmanuel Macron will be participating.

Smaller and more radical unions such as the Coordination Rurale and the Jeune Agriculteurs say they will continue the blockades “indefinitely”.

Interior minister Gérald Darmanin will hold an emergency meeting on Monday morning to decide whether to continue with the ‘light touch’ policing that has been deployed around blockades so far.

Authorities are advising people to postpone or cancel all non-essential road travel.

The below list is based on pre-announced demonstrations and could change throughout the day – if you have a journey planned, listen to local radio or follow local authorities on social media for the latest information.

A1, A4, A5, A6, A12, A13 and A15

Around 1,000 tractors are expected to take part in a blockade of the seven autoroutes that form the major access points to Paris, with the aim of cutting off access to and from the capital.

The say the blockades will be set up around 30-40km outside the capital.

The blockade is scheduled to begin at 2pm on Monday and continue “for the duration”, some roads including the A4, A5 and A6 have been wholly or partially blocked over the weekend.

The roadblock locations mean that road access to Paris Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports will be affected for people travelling from outside Paris, although its is not expected that there will be any disruption to public transport services from inside the city.

Unions also say they plan to blockade Rungis, the huge produce market outside Paris that provides much of the city’s fresh fruit, vegetables and meat.

Lyon

Meanwhile farmers in the south-east say they intend to mount a similar operation to blockade Lyon, also starting at 2pm on Monday. So far no details have been released on which roads will be blocked, but it’s likely that most major routes into the city could be affected.

On Sunday blockades continued on the A7, A43, A48, A480, A49 and A71.

Toulouse

In several cities around France taxi drivers have joined the protests in recent days, using the high-profile activity to draw attention to their ongoing protests about fuel prices and changes to the rules on patient transport journeys.

In Toulouse taxi drivers gathered at the airport from 6am and are staging rolling roadblocks on the entrance routes.

Marseille

Taxis have blocked the A50 into Marseille with a rolling roadblock from 7.30am.

Bordeaux

Taxi drivers are also staging protests in Bordeaux, with plans for rolling roadblocks around the city’s ringroad.

RN113 Nimes-Montpellier

Taxi drivers plan to stage a rolling roadblock on the RN113, starting at Nimes and heading to Montpellier.

Lille

Taxis in Lille intend to block main routes into the city, with local authorities saying they expect severe disruption from 6am.

Toulon

Taxis plan rolling roadblocks from 6am on Monday on both the A50 and the A57 near Toulon.

A16/Calais

The A16 in Pas-de-Calais remains blocked on Sunday and farmers say blockades will be maintained into Monday. The road forms the main route to and from Calais from both Belgium and southern France. The port of Calais itself is no longer blockaded and port authorities say that traffic is flowing freely.

A13/Normandy

A rolling roadblock on the A13 in the direction of Paris began on Monday morning, while taxis says they intend to join the roadblocks.

A7 Avignon

The A7 is blocked between Avignon and Chanas and also between Chanas and Orange. 

A11 Chartres

The A11 is blocked in the direction of Paris at Chartes.

A9

The A9 near Nîmes has been blocked since Thursday and farmers say they intend to continue their action, a visit over the weekend from the agriculture minister not having persuaded them to stop.

The road, one of the major routes into France from Spain, has been blocked with tons of fruit, vegetables and wine that have been removed from Spanish-registered lorries – cheaper foreign imports of food and drink is a major complaint among farmers.

A10 and A11

Farmers have declared an ‘open péage‘ and the Allaires, Chartres-nord and Thivars toll booths in Eure-et-Loire.

Ski resorts

Farmers have begun blocking the RN21 and the RD935 with the intention of blocking access to ski resorts in the Pyrenees.

N24

Farmers intend to begin a blockade on the N24 in Brittany from Sunday night near Ploërmel.

Reopening

However, as many farmers head towards Paris the blockades in some areas have been lifted and roads reopened including the A10 in Charente-Maritime, the A54 in Bouches-du-Rhône (near Marseille), the A51 between Grenoble and Marseille and the A6 in north-east France.

More to follow

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ELECTIONS

Explained: The party manifestos for France’s snap elections

As the formal campaign period begins in France's snap legislative elections, here's a look at the manifestos of the main parties and what they mean for foreigners living here.

Published: 17 June 2024 12:13 CEST
Explained: The party manifestos for France's snap elections

Monday marks the start of the official campaign period for France’s snap legislative elections – a brief two-week campaign before the first round of voting on Sunday, June 30th followed by round two a week later on July 7th. 

Here’s a look at the manifestos of the main parties, with a particular emphasis on any immigration policies that would affect the lives of foreigners in France, or those planning to move here some day.

Renaissance

First up is Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party Renaissance – its platform was unveiled by Macron himself in a televised press conference, with a more detailed programme unveiled later by prime minister Gabriel Attal.

The party is at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to the programme, since its main policy goals are already known and it is limited by financial and other factors from announcing any especially bold new goals. The result was that Macron in his launch speech was left to talk about policies that had already been announced or vague goals such as holding a ‘national debate’ on France’s secularism policy.

Macron also framed the election as a ‘battle against extremism’ saying: “I hope that when the time comes, men and women of goodwill who will have been able to say no to the extremes will come together… to build a shared, sincere project that is useful to the country.” 

Programme – Much of the programme will be familiar since Macron was after all re-elected in 2022 and set out his five-year plan at the time. On the economy and the environment, the president said that his party would continue to grow foreign investment in France, cut unemployment and work towards the ‘green reindustrialisation’ of the country – a Macron pet project to create jobs and industry in France by embracing new green technologies such as car batteries.

He also re-committed to France’s domestic nuclear energy programme, and to France’s strong support for Ukraine.

Among the new parts were a ‘great national debate’ on the tricky subject of French state secularism (laïcité) and limits to access to screens for children – as recommended by a commission of experts.

Attal also unveiled some new measures on the key issue of the cost-of-living, with promises to triple the ‘Macron bonus’ paid to some employees from €3,000 a year to €10,000, index-linking pensions to inflation, reducing utility bills by 15 percent next winter and help for parents in buying school supplies.

He also proposes axing the notaire fee (in reality a kind of tax on home purchases) for any property purchased for under €250,000 and setting up an extra renovation fund to give grants to property-owners to repairs and energy works.

Some ongoing Macronist legislation such as changing the law on assisted dying has been interrupted on its journey through parliament, but would likely restart if the party wins a majority.

The party’s programme makes no specific suggestions for changes to the immigration system, but it did just introduce a new immigration law in January that – among other things – introduces a language test requirement for certain types of residency cards and raises the language level required for French citizenship through naturalisation.

Front Populaire

France’s largest leftist political parties have struck an election pact not to stand candidates against each other – in order to avoid dividing the leftist vote.

This means that the hard-left La France Insoumise will field 229 candidates, the centre-left Parti Socialiste will field 175, the Green EELV 92 and the Communists 50. It also means that the parties are presenting a single, joint manifesto under the banner of Nouveau Front Populaire – which has been the subject of much argument and some awkward compromises.

Programme – much of the programme is concerned with cancelling recent Macronist laws. Among the laws it says it will cancel are the new immigration bill – the one that introduces French language tests for certain types of residency card and raises the language level required for French citizenship.

The manifesto also proposes introducing a 10-year carte de séjour residency card ‘as the standard card’ – at present the standard model is for one-year cards initially and then move on to five-year and then 10-year cards, although there are significant variations based on your personal status (eg working, student, retired or family member).

Also set for the chop are Macron’s changes to unemployment benefits plus a cancellation of the price rises in electricity and gas and the reintroduction of the ‘wealth tax’ scrapped by Macron in 2018. Meanwhile the pension age would be dropped down to 60 (cancelling Macron’s law raising it from 62 to 64 and dropping it another two years).

The party would also raise the Smic (minimum wage) to €1,600 a month.

The environment forms a key part of the manifesto with a range of green incentives plus tax and financing rules that would clamp down on fossil fuels.

On foreign policy there are some delicately worded compromises since views on Ukraine and Gaza had previously split the leftist alliance. The group promises to “unfailingly defend the sovereignty and freedom of the Ukrainian people” including by delivering weapons and writing off debt. On Gaza, the party would recognise the Palestinian state and embargo arms supplies to Israel.

Policy towards the EU – a topic that divides the left – is left to one side.

Rassemblement National

The far-right Rassemblement National party will be joined by at least some candidates from the right-wing Les Republicains party, although the internal party divide over that pact will see some LR candidates independently. 

Programme – the party makes immigration one of its key concerns, with a commitment to “drastically reduce legal and illegal immigration and deport foreign criminals” listed as a priority.

The programme opposes both non-economic migration and family reunification – no detail is given on changes to the visa or residency card system in this area, but it seems likely that anyone wanting to move for non-work related reasons (eg retirees) would face restrictions. Likewise spouse visas would be affected by any changes to family reunification rules.

Non-French citizens would only be able to access social benefits such as housing benefits or caring allowances after working in France for five years and there would also be a ‘French first’ preference for access to employment and social housing.

Residency permits would be withdrawn for any non-French citizens who have been unemployed for more than one year.

Asylum claims would exclusively be processed outside France.

When it comes to French citizenship, the party wants to abolish the droit du sol, which gives the right to French citizenship to children born in France to foreign parents and limit access to citizenship for adults “on the basis of merit and assimilation” – it’s not clear how this would differ from the current system where candidates must already prove that they speak French and understand French culture and politics.

The party also has a strong line on law and order – doubling the number of magistrates, increasing fines for certain offences, adding those convicted of street harassment to the sex offenders’ register and creating a “presumption of legitimate defence” for police officers who kill or injure members of the public.

This article is part of a series on election platforms in France, we will look at each party’s economic platform in a separate piece. You can follow all the latest election news in our election section HERE, and you can also sign up here to receive our bi-weekly election breakdown during the campaign period

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