Europe live: farmers’ protests continue across continent
The French prime minister, Gabriel Attal, made a last ditch attempt to defuse farmers’ anger in the run up to the 60th annual Salon d’Agriculture in Paris that president Emmanuel Macron is due to open on Saturday.
French farmers have been carrying out a number of protest actions in the last few days to up pressure on the government, including visiting supermarkets to load trolleys full of foreign-produced food products, dumping manure in front of official buildings and go-slow operations on roads across the country.
At a press conference on Wednesday morning, Attal outlined what many are unofficially calling “Operation Defuse” in the run up to Saturday.
He insisted agriculture was a government priority and described it as one of “France’s fundamental interests”, while the emphasis was on the country working towards food “sovereignty”.
The government has promised that a new agriculture law would be published at the end of this week, debated in the spring and a cross-party parliamentary committee set up to discuss its contents in June.
Macron is not one to shy away from a heated exchange but Elysée officials are concerned that his visit to the salon could be marred by protests.
Farmers have been demonstrating their anger at a raft of issues including claims of increased bureaucracy from EU regulations, controls on the use of pesticides, rising fuel costs and unfair competition from abroad. The scale and fury of the protests has surprised officials.
Among the announcements made by Attal and other ministers on Wednesday: checks on food producers claiming their products are made in France were being upped and legal action taken against those that did not conform, economy minister Bruno Le Maire said.
Attal added there would be “product by product” checks on foods produced outside the EU containing pesticides banned across the continent to ensure they were stopped.
If it is banned for our farmers, then it shouldn’t be coming in.
Attal also announced he government would make it easier for farms to hire seasonal workers requiring visas, reform the farmers’ pensions system and hold a conference to discuss how to find solutions to farmers’ grievances.
