Paris witnessed an agricultural insurgency Thursday as farmers blockaded landmarks from the Eiffel Tower to the Champs-Élysées and Arc de Triomphe, venting spleen against the EU-Mercosur accord and Macron’s farm policies. Protesters pierced police cordons, deploying machinery to jam avenues and highways in a preemptive dawn strike.
Led by the conservative Rural Coordination Union, the mobilizations spotlight the trade pact’s peril: an influx of cut-rate South American goods threatening to pulverize French farm economics. Layered on top is scalding criticism of government livestock disease strategies, fueling a powder keg of rural resentment.
Stéphane Pelletier, Vienne-based deputy from central France, articulated the pain: ‘Anger and despair engulf us; we’re as marooned as Mercosur, forsaken for shuttle programs, Airbus, and autos.’ This sentiment resonates across farmlands feeling increasingly marginalized.
Paris officials fired back, with spokesperson Maud Bregeon calling out blockades and legislative proximity protests as criminal on France Info. Contextually, it’s a riposte to the EU’s latest maneuver—€45 billion in prompt farm subsidies and fertilizer tariff trims to coax Mercosur doubters like France.
Success for EU-Mercosur means the planet’s vastest trade realm, easing European cars, tools, vintages, and spirits into Latin markets. French producers shudder at the flip side: Mercosur’s quartet—Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay—dumping affordable proteins and produce, eroding price floors.
This Paris powder keg reflects tectonic shifts in European ag policy, where global ambitions collide with grassroots realities. Farmers demand safeguards, vowing escalation if ignored, positioning their struggle as a bulwark for sovereignty in a borderless trade era.