FRENCH FARMERS PROTEST ON HIGHWAYS AROUND PARIS – Calling for a bill that removes restrictions on them to be passed without amendments
Farmers blocked highways near Paris and demonstrated outside the National Assembly on Monday, May 26, calling for a bill that removes restrictions on them to be passed without amendments by lawmakers in the lower chamber after it was passed by the Senate.
The protests, called by unions Young Farmers (JA) and the National Farmers’ Syndicate (FNSEA) took place as lawmakers in the National Assembly began debating the bill, which FNSEA described as simplifying rules farmers have to follow and making French farming more competitive.
Julien Thierry, a grain farmer from the Yvelines department outside Paris, said lawmakers from the Greens and left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) were trying to amend the bill in ways that would not help farmers.
“We’re asking the lawmakers, our lawmakers, to be serious and vote for it as it stands”, Thierry said.
Lawmakers from LFI and the Greens oppose the bill, arguing it weakens environmental protections by reauthorizing harmful pesticides and easing regulations on large-scale industrial farms, which they say threatens biodiversity and public health.
Farmers held regular protests in 2024 in France and other parts of Europe objecting to bureaucracy, competition for their products from cheap imports and low incomes.
