The farmers are expected to continue their protests by blocking roads, particularly around Paris, with plans to ‘besiege’ the city indefinitely from 14:00 today, the organising unions FNSEA and Jeunes Agricultueurs have announced.
The protests, rooted in dissatisfaction with the French government’s environmental, fiscal and social policies and the EU, began last week and peaked on Friday when the French Prime Minister responded to the demands.
On the day, 17,500 farmers and 8,500 tractors blocked roads at 189 points. This intense protest severely disrupted road traffic, causing delays of more than 24 hours.
According to Fenadismer, the Spanish road hauliers’ association, Spanish and other European road hauliers experienced continuous blockades on the main international routes, with their lorries being “taken hostage” by the farmers. It should be added that Spanish lorries are particularly sensitive to farmers, who see the lower prices of imported Spanish and Moroccan fruit and vegetables as one of the reasons why they cannot make a living.
After a lorry driver was accidentally but fatally hit at a blockade last Tuesday, and Spanish lorry drivers reported unacceptable conditions, the IRU published an open letter calling on the farmers to protest peacefully. The letter also urged European Commissioner Thierry Breton, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, to “stop this vandalism”.
The Spanish transport fleet, 40% of which is dedicated to international transport, has been warned to expect further major disruption from today, with potential damage of up to 10 million euros a day forecast. Fenadismer also estimates that the Black Monday protests could disrupt more than 20,000 lorries crossing Spain’s borders into Europe today.
While organisers of the protest plan to mobilise 500 lorries to disrupt traffic on the main routes to Paris today, the French government has reportedly already deployed 15,000 police officers to control events.
Unhappy with the French Prime Minister’s response to their demands on Friday, the farmers’ unions will resume protests today with the planned week-long ‘siege’ of Paris from 2pm and road blockades this afternoon.
According to the French private television channel TF1, more than 100 lorries are already blocking the A7/M7 motorway between exit 6 and junction 4. This is in the Lyon region.
🔴 Les agriculteurs positionnés sur l’A450 bloquent dorénavant l’autoroute A7/M7 qui est fermée :
➡️ entre la sortie 6 (Feyzin) et le diffuseur 4 (Pierre-Bénite Nord) dans le sens Sud-Nord
➡️ entre le diffuseur 4 et la jonction A7/A450 dans Nord-Sud pic.twitter.com/4aXjIOgg5m
— Préfète de région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes et du Rhône (@prefetrhone) January 29, 2024
Belgian farmers are also protesting with motorway blockades, citing similar grievances over decent wages.