The blockades of farmers' protests in France are being progressively dissolved this Friday (2), as a result of the unions' request to suspend the general mobilization following the promises of new measures announced by the government of President Emmanuel Macron.
Several dozen routes remain obstructed or partially closed, but other points are returning to normal.
The mayor of Tarn et Garonne (near Toulouse), Vincent Roberti, confirmed the reopening of the A62 between the cities of Agen and Montauban in both directions of traffic, but warned that traffic on the A20 continues to be disrupted by demonstrations near the latter city.
In the Île de France region, which includes Paris, the closures continued this morning at several points, such as on the A1 between Senlis and Roissy-en-France, in both directions, and on the A5 and A6 in two sections towards the capital.
On the contrary, one of the most symbolic convoys of these protests, that of farmers from Agen who left towards Rungis (where one of the most important supply centers in Europe is located), began to leave the place towards the southwest.
The expectation is that most of the blocked roads will be reopened throughout the day, although some minority trade union organizations, such as the Confédération Paysanne, have defended the maintenance of the blockades.
Some of the mobilized farmers began to return to their homes last night, after the agricultural sector's hegemonic union, the National Federation of Agricultural Operators' Unions (FNSEA), and its sister organization Jovens Agricultores called for the large-scale mobilization to be suspended. scale of the last two weeks.
This does not mean that the protests have ended, but rather that they have been “transformed”, the president of FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, said today in an interview with the broadcaster BFMTV.
Rousseau also warned that, if the first concrete results are not seen materialized in a law this February, the mobilizations will resume. “There is no choice,” he emphasized.
The union's call for an end to the blockades came in response to a new battery of measures announced on Thursday by the French Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, and the holders of the Economy, Agriculture and Ecological Transition portfolios.
These are policies that aim to respond to the sector's demands, such as unfair competition, as French farmers complain that their products are subject to more stringent sanitary and environmental requirements than those imported from other countries.
In this sense, France will prevent the import of food from outside the European Union (EU) that has been treated with pesticides or other phytosanitary products that cannot be used in Europe.
The French Prime Minister also promised new financial aid packages (such as 150 million euros for livestock farming – R$802 million), a profound simplification of regulations, measures to encourage generational renewal and anti-fraud controls for products that are advertised as being of French origin, but in reality they have another origin.
Farmer demonstrations were also repeated in other countries, such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal and Spain to protest against conditions in the sector and European policies.
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