PARIS: France’s powerful farming union on Monday threatened a week or more of protest action as it was poised to meet with Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.

The unions have demanded concrete government action to address their grievances, which they say include excessive financial charges and environmental protection rules.

The growing anger of farmers, some of whom have already taken to direct action to express their frustration, is shaping up to be the first major challenge of President Emmanuel Macron’s newly appointed government. The meeting with Attal comes after France’s agriculture minister announced that a long-delayed reform package had again been postponed.

This week’s protests would affect every part of France, Rousseau told the France Inter broadcaster. “Tension is rising strongly, which is why we need concrete measures,” he said.

The Young Farmers union leader Arnaud Gaillot — who is also invited to Monday’s meeting — told France 2 television that “we could be on the eve of a massive farmers’ movement” if the government’s response was not deemed satisfactory. Over the weekend, Attal insisted that he was on the side of the farmers.

“Our farmers are not bandits, polluters, people who torture animals, as we sometimes hear,” he told a meeting on Saturday in the southern Rhone region. The latest action by farmers in the southern Occitanie region gave a measure of their anger.

They started a blockade of the A64 motorway late on Thursday at Carbonne, around 45 kilometres (28 miles) southwest of Toulouse.

In addition to financial charges and environmental protection rules, farmers are also angry about progressive tax increases on the non-road-use diesel that is essential to their work.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2024