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French farmers are ending a hectic week, in which they took to the streets of different cities to protest against the policies of Emmanuel Macron's Government and the European Union that, according to rural workers, harm their businesses.
This Friday, January 26, hundreds of kilometers of French highways were closed to traffic, including several sections in the two main accesses to Spain, due to farmers' protests, while they await the first responses from the French Government.
The protests had remained in rural areas and medium-sized cities, but the movement of agricultural entrepreneurs has targeted the capital, Paris. The protesters threaten to blockade the city if the authorities do not respond to the hundreds of demands they made and which, they stressed, are not willing to negotiate.
The Prime Minister of France, Gabriel Attal, plans to announce a first package of measures in response to farmers. It will do so from a farm in the town of Montastruc, a few kilometers northeast of the city of Toulouse.
The claims they promote are numerous. But the main ones focus on low wages, tax pressure on farms as environmental care measures, the elimination of tax exemptions on fuel for machinery and the import of products, which causes an impact on the local industry.
Farmer protests have spread across several countries in Europe. QSimilar statements resonate in Germany, the Netherlands and Romania.
The agreement with Mercosur, another pending
In relation to the trade agreements with other regions promoted by the old continent, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, He assured that they will analyze whether the farmers' protests will be an “obstacle” to the trade agreement negotiated by Brussels and Mercosur.
“Why fool ourselves, now the ball is in Europe's court. We are the ones who have to say if we want it or not, because on the Latin American side, with the arrival of a new government in Argentina, its willingness to sign the agreement is greater than ever,” Borrell said in a speech in the European Parliament with representatives of Latin America, quoted by EFE.
The European Commission and Mercosur (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) signed the trade agreement in 2019, but it has not yet been ratified due to the reluctance that European countries such as France and Ireland—or the European Parliament itself—have regarding environmental policy. of Latin American countries and due to fear of the impact that the trade agreement may have on local farmers.
With EFE and Reuters
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