PARIS: French police said on Friday they had arrested 66 people at a farmers’ protest on the Champs-Elysees that blocked traffic during the morning rush hour.

Using tractors and bales of hay, farmers briefly brought traffic to a halt on the famed avenue near the Arc de Triomphe monument, only a short distance from President Emmanuel Macron’s office, the Elysee.

The protesters, who held up banners on the avenue, said their action was aimed “at saving French agriculture”.

Farmers across Europe have been protesting for weeks over what they say are excessively restrictive environmental rules, competition from cheap imports from outside the European Union and low incomes.

Farmer Axel Masson said about 100 of his peers had gathered at the arterial roundabout “in a peaceful and law-abiding manner”.

Some of the protesters handed out bags of potatoes to motorists stuck in crawling traffic around the Arc de Triomphe.

Several were seen chatting with police officers before the arrests.

“The Rural Coordination takes over the Arc de Triomphe symbolically and peacefully,” the farmers’ union said earlier in a statement on social media platform X, adding that it was a cry to “save” agriculture in France.

It said it “wants quick action to save 45 per cent of our farms which are in financial distress”.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2024