France’s farmers vented their anger at President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday as he arrived in Paris for the annual agricultural fair, a massive fair long seen as a test of presidents’ relationship with the country.
A large crowd that had camped outside the night before broke in and scuffled with police in riot gear as Mr. Macron entered through a side door to meet with unions demanding an end to the industry’s troubles.
During an hour-long closed-door meeting before the opening of the fair, where senior Cabinet members stood alongside Mr. Macron, farmers sang the French national anthem “La Marseillaise” at the top of their lungs, blew whistles, raised fists and shouted that the president must resign , as the shy prize cows and pigs brought to the capital from farms across the country watched nervously from their show stalls.
The loud confrontation was the latest in a months-long showdown in which farmers blocked roads across France and in Paris – a movement that has spread to other countries including Greece, Poland, Belgium and Germany.
According to farmers, this is about sharply rising costs, unfair competition from imports that are allowed into Europe from other countries that can produce food more cheaply, and in particular European Union regulations that are intended to curb or reverse climate change.
Agriculture is responsible for about 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the European Union says drastic changes are needed. Farmers say the European targets impose overwhelming administrative and financial burdens.
As Mr. Macron emerged from the meeting, his face pale and haggard, he announced that his government would present a bill next month to address an “income crisis, a crisis of confidence and a crisis of recognition” for farmers in France. “We must show recognition, respect and pride for the agricultural model and for our farmers,” he said.
It was the latest in a series of attempts by new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal to appease farmers. However, they almost unanimously demand concrete changes instead of promises.
Mr. Macron stayed at the fair, known as the Salon International d’Agriculture, to hold a lively impromptu discussion with a select group of farmers who wanted to express their frustrations directly. Many of them wore yellow, green and red hats to identify the unions to which they belonged.
“Cheap grain imports from Ukraine are destroying French agriculture. “What are you going to do about it?” a farmer asked as Mr. Macron, sans suit jacket and wearing a white shirt and tie, listened and took notes.
“We’re barely making ends meet!” shouted another. “We shouldn’t have to block every road in the country to get the help we need.”
Mr. Macron, who has struggled during his nearly seven-year presidency to establish contacts with poorer and more rural parts of France where he is seen as remote and distant, urged farmers not to view the situation as “catastrophic,” the Frenchman said Agriculture “didn’t fall apart.” Later, under tight security, he strolled through the salon, talking freely with farmers and sampling their cheeses and meats, as the aggressive crowd outside the building grew louder.
He called for calm. “We will not respond to this agricultural crisis in a few hours,” he said, adding that his government was taking numerous steps to address deep problems, including holding negotiations next month at the presidential palace with farmers unions, food producers and retailers “unified “Agricultural plan for 2040”.
That still seems a long way off for farmers and their families struggling to make it through the end of the month.
Mr Macron said an “emergency cash flow plan” would bring banks and the agricultural sector together to help struggling farms and vowed to push for a Europe-wide solution to another problem: large supermarket chains forming purchasing consortia to help negotiate food prices that, according to farmers, deprive them of a fair income. He also announced the introduction of a production cost index that would “serve as a price floor”.
“I stand with our farmers and French agriculture,” stressed Mr Macron.
Ahead of Mr Macron’s visit to the trade fair, Mr Attal had sought to head off protests by outlining a package of measures designed to reassure farmers that agriculture remained the government’s top priority.
“We want to make agriculture one of the fundamental interests of the nation, just like our defense or our security,” Mr. Attal said.
But those promises didn’t calm the crowds that flocked to the salon early Saturday morning. The crowd was so dense and loud that farmers and police officers were at times in danger of being crushed. People collapsed on top of each other into hay-filled goat enclosures in part of a huge livestock hall.
Visiting the salon has been a political rite of passage for every French president since Jacques Chirac, who served from 1995 to 2007, and often serves as a barometer of the ability to connect with rural France. Mr Chirac, seen as something of a gentleman farmer, was usually given a warm welcome, while his successor Nicolas Sarkozy lost his temper when he told a protester to “go away, poor idiot” – a moment that set him apart for the rest of his life would pursue the presidency.
Early in his term, Mr. Macron was greeted in the drawing room with an egg thrown near his face, but he continued his tour, meeting and greeting the farmers in the hall.
But Saturday’s mass clashes with police were like nothing at the fair in recent memory. They suggest that the farmers’ movement is unlikely to slow down any time soon.
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2024-02-24 13:25:36
www.nytimes.com
