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Tractors parked outside French National Assembly as farmer protests return to Paris
Tractors are parked outside the National Assembly as farmers protest regulations imposed on them, on Monday, in Paris. AP
French farmers on Monday launched a new wave of protests, parking tractors outside the National Assembly and setting up roadblocks across the country in a show of force ahead of a parliamentary debate over a controversial agricultural bill.
According to a Politico report, the demonstrations, organised by powerful farming unions FNSEA and Jeunes Agriculteurs, aim to pressure lawmakers into passing legislation that would ease administrative procedures for building livestock facilities and temporarily lift a ban on the insecticide acetamiprid.
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The chemical has been prohibited in France since 2018 due to environmental concerns.
These measures reflect long-standing demands from agricultural workers, who staged major nationwide protests last year calling for reduced bureaucracy and more support from the government, added the report.
The bill, which has already cleared the Senate, is backed by Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard.
However, it faces strong resistance from green and left-wing lawmakers. Critics of the proposed law submitted hundreds of amendments in an apparent attempt to delay or derail Monday's debate in the National Assembly.
While most of the agricultural sector appears to support the legislation, at least one left-wing farmers' union has publicly opposed it, citing environmental risks and concerns over pesticide use.
FNSEA chief Arnaud Rousseau on Monday said protests will continue until Wednesday but acknowledged that they will be mostly symbolic.
'The aim is not to annoy the French, but to bring the message we put across a year and a half ago, which is that French agriculture is in danger,' Politico quoted Rousseau as saying in an interview with FranceInfo.
However, France's left-wing opposition parties — notably France Unbowed and the Greens — have voiced concern that both the French government and the European Union are rolling back too many environmental protections, particularly regarding pesticide regulations, in response to last year's large-scale farmer protests.
Meanwhile, EU agriculture ministers are meeting in Brussels on Monday to discuss the bloc's Common Agricultural Policy, as well as trade relations with Ukraine and the United States.
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More radical farmers' groups are expected to stage protests in Brussels next week, targeting the EU's environmental regulations and green policies.
With inputs from agencies
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