Angry about costs, bureaucracy and green regulations, a group of French farmers stormed a major agricultural fair in Paris today, ahead of the planned visit of President Emmanuel Macron, reports France24.
Faced with dozens of police officers inside the fair, farmers shouted and whistled, calling for Macron’s resignation, using expletives directed at the French leader.
“This is our home!,” they shouted as ranks of French riot police tried to contain the protests. There were several clashes with the protesters and the police arrested at least one of them.
Macron, who had breakfast with the leaders of the French farmers’ union, was supposed to walk the alleys of the fair afterwards.
“I am saying this for all farmers: you do not help any colleague by breaking the stands, you do not help any colleague by preventing performances and somehow scaring families to come,” Macron said after the meeting with union leaders.
The Paris Farm Show, a major event in France that attracts around 600,000 visitors over its nine days, was due to open at 9am. The doors were still closed at 08:38, after the attack by angry farmers.
Amid tensions between French farmers and the government, Macron canceled a debate he had planned to hold at the fair on Saturday with farmers, food processors and retailers after farm unions said they would not take part.
Farmers are protesting across Europe, calling for better incomes, less red tape and denouncing unfair competition from cheap Ukrainian goods imported to help Kiev’s war effort.
The farmers’ protests, which have spread across Europe, come as the far right, for which farmers represent a growing constituency, is expected to make gains in June’s European Parliament elections.
French farmers earlier this month largely called off protests that included blocking highways and dumping fertilizer outside public buildings after Prime Minister Gabriel Attal promised new measures worth 400 million euros.
Photo ©️ France24
