Operations to block farmers: the boss of the FNSEA suggests that Gabriel Attal “return to the negotiating table”

Arnaud Rousseau, president of the FNSEA. Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON

In an interview with Midi Libre, Arnaud Rousseau, president of the FNSEA, the first French agricultural union, reacts to the announcements of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and announces the continuation of the peasant movement. Why blockages "continue".

You call for the continuation of the farmers' movement, you feel you have not been heard ?

What the Prime Minister said goes, for part of his remarks, in the right direction. But it is not complete compared to what we asked for. These are good first proposals, but there are things that need to be clarified and completed.

Consequently, after consulting all of our departmental and regional representatives, as well as with the Young Farmers, we made the decision to continue the movement.&nbsp ;

The Prime Minister having said that he was a man of dialogue, our desire is to return to the negotiating table.

What are the strong measures that could lead you to put an end to the movement ?

There are a lot of them, because he talked about some interesting measures, but on all subjects, for example overtransposition (of European rules into French law), I found him in the background, or even absent.

But supertranspositions, by definition, are French decisions which can be modified by decree. He spoke of around ten decrees, but there are many others. Regarding environmental overtransposition, we have a lot of questions. But there are also issues of environmental compensation.

And he absolutely did not talk about pensions, on which major progress is expected. He didn't talk at all about the installation and transmission for young people. There are a number of topics that have not been covered.

We have a very precise platform of demands, with 42 points which are broken down into 122 measures. We want to look with the Prime Minister at those to which he responded positively and those which were not addressed: is it possible or not and for what reasons ?

You will therefore continue the blockades in France.

Yes, we say it very clearly, because if there are the first elements of an answer, all our claims have not been addressed.

I had the Prime Minister on the phone twice, he received us on Monday as part of a meeting intended to discuss a diagnosis, but since then we have not worked either with its services or with the other ministries on the measures.

So the actions continue and, if the Prime Minister wishes, we are at his disposal to continue the discussions.

Could you go as far as blocking the city of Paris ?

We currently have actions (Friday evening, Editor's note) in Ile-de-France, we have not, for the moment, decided to enter Paris. ;#39;is not the objective, but depending on what happens in the coming days things could evolve.

At the moment, this is not the case.

Certain barriers could, on the contrary, be lifted ? There may also be divisions within the unions, notably yours:  Jérôme Bayle, head of the FNSEA in Haute-Garonne, announced the lifting of the A64 dam this Saturday noon.

As always, in our network, we give priority to the decision on the ground. This movement also aims to rotate because there are people who have been mobilized for four, five days , while others simply started today. Some will drop out this Friday evening to perhaps come back next week, others will continue.

Our colleagues from Haute-Garonne were the first (to carry out blockades, Editor's note) and they lifted their device because they have three demands to which Gabriel Attal responded live, including action.

With these decisions, at this stage, the Prime Minister has lifted a barrier. There are a hundred others left.

The FNSEA further specifies that it condemns all violent actions committed on the sidelines of the mobilization of farmers, in particular the fire of the MSA in Narbonne. I subscribe to read more