France announces new measures to calm farmers' protests

Farmers demanding more subsidies, less red tape and lower costs are staging roadblocks on the highways around Paris, posing the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Gabriel Attal since his appointment less than a month ago. He sought to allay their concerns in a sweeping policy speech Tuesday in the French National Assembly .

Farmers spend the night at a highway barrier in Aix-en-Provence, southern France, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024. AP Photo

“We need to listen to the farmers who are working and worried about their future and their livelihoods,” said Mr. Attal. “The goal is clear: to ensure fair competition, especially so that the rules that apply to French farmers also apply to foreign products.” Protection from cheap imports is one of the protesters’ main demands.

Mr Attal promised emergency aid for struggling wine producers and speedy payments of EU subsidies to others. He also said food retailers who failed to comply with laws aimed at ensuring a fair share of revenue for farmers would be immediately fined.

Farmers sleeping on a highway near Disneyland east of Paris doubted whether the government was doing enough to help. They grilled sausages, tuned in to the prime minister 's speech and hung an effigy of a dying farmer from a bridge.

Stéphane Chopin, an organic Charolais beef farmer near Château-Thierry, northeast of Paris, described the costs and burdens of trying to maintain organic methods while competing with food from other countries with lower labor and living costs.

The movement in France is another manifestation of a global food crisis made worse by the nearly two-year-long all-out war between Russia and Ukraine, a major food producer.

French farmers say rising prices for fertilizers, energy and other inputs for growing crops and raising livestock have hit their incomes.

French President Emmanuel Macron will meet the President of the European Commission on Thursday in Brussels to discuss the agricultural crisis.

Mai Van (according to AP)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/phap-cong-bo-cac-bien-phap-moi-nham-xoa-diu-cuoc-bieu-tinh-cua-nong-dan-post283130.html