Anger of farmers: burned tires, an emptied wine tank in Bagnols-sur-Cèze, stumps in Pont

The wine tank of a Spanish truck was spilled onto the road. C.B.

Les agriculteurs ont brûlé des pneus, devant les panneaux de signalisation. C.B.

Des agriculteurs ont vidé des souches devant le Lidl de Pont-Saint-Esprit. P.M.

The farmers' demonstration moved to Bagnols-sur-Cèze on Monday January 29 in the afternoon, to the Cèze roundabout.

Around thirty farmers occupied, with their tractors, the Cèze roundabout, Monday January 29 throughout the afternoon, to filter the trucks and spot those containing foreign merchandise intended for the French market. Already, Friday January 26, a similar action had taken place on the same roundabout where vegetables had been emptied. 

Several of these farmers had participated in the screening on the Pont-Saint-Esprit roundabouts in the morning, but when traffic was diverted to Alès and the trucks no longer passed through Pont-Saint-Esprit, we came there" one of them explained. 

From the beginning of the afternoon, a line of trucks formed, blocking the various entrances to the town of Bagnols-sur-Cèze. At school let-out time, the order was given to let school buses pass, just as the passage of emergency vehicles was made easier.< /p>

In a sometimes tense atmosphere, under the gaze of onlookers, a handful of farmers, some hooded, checked the drivers' papers concerning their goods. The first truck to be emptied was carrying bottles of Spanish sparkling wine.

At the end of the afternoon, a 30,000 liter tank of red wine was emptied onto the road. "That represents around 40,000 bottles" calculated a winegrower. "This wine was intended for a local merchant… it is cheaper than ours".   

At the same time, another group of farmers piled up tree stumps in front of the Lidl store in Pont-Saint-Esprit.