Vandalism of fast food, burning of European flags… Images of intensifying farmers’ movement

Anger is rising among farmers, who are waiting for announcements made by the government. This Wednesday, January 24, strike actions increased, especially in the southwest of France.

“Empty everywhere, grab the tractor and go!” The words on fire, in front of the gates of Agen prefecture, into the microphone of the head of the Lot-et-Garonne rural coordination, José Pérez, are an example of an angry farmers’ movement that is hardening.

Throughout the day of Wednesday, January 24, images from almost everywhere in France, and even from Europe, in the media or on social networks proliferated.

Agen, center of actions

Without concrete answers from the government, agricultural unions have called on farmers to take new barriers or take action at the local level.

It was in the south-west that most of the consolidation took place. From 6am, demonstrators blocked a lane in Artigues-Prés-Bordeaux, east of the Bordeaux metropolitan area, near the interchange with the A89/N89 (direction Clermont-Ferrand), cutting off traffic in both directions.

At least 200 tractors invaded the Gironde capital’s ring road, a vital axis connecting Paris and Spain.

Further south, tensions crystallized from late morning to late afternoon in the city of Agen. A fast food restaurant in Agen was targeted by farmers around 11 am. Hay bales were dropped off at McDonald’s.

After that, the rural coordinator of the department (CR47), accustomed to punchy actions, sprayed the facade of the prefecture with slurry and set fire to tires and other garbage in front of the door.

“In France, if there are no tears and blood, nothing succeeds. Today, we have done everything to ensure that it happens more or less peacefully, tomorrow I do not guarantee anything,” the president of the Chamber of Agriculture and Chamber Serge Bousquet-Cassagne threatened. Diagram of CR47.

The union also called for farmers to target “administration” and “banks”.

The movement will continue on Thursday

In Agen, too, farmers burned the European flag. “Europe has destroyed French agriculture,” one of them said to journalist Clément Lenot’s camera.

New actions may also be carried out in the coming hours. In the Côte d’Or, “about a hundred” tractors, according to the organizers, must meet in a field on Thursday evening, with their headlights and lights on to form a giant SOS.

Some are even threatening to reach Paris: in the Oise, around 50 tractors previously located near Beauvais are heading towards the capital on the A16 on Wednesday afternoon.

The aim is not to drive on the city’s cobblestones immediately, but “we want to show that the pressure is on and we want results”, said Matthew Carpentier, president of the Young Farmers of Oise. On Thursday, “It depends on how the pressure builds.”

For the moment, the government does not want to ask the police to intervene. Its spokeswoman Prisca Thévenot assured that there was no question of coming to prevent roadblocks.