President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that France will oppose a major trade agreement between the European Union and South American nations, as farmers used tractors to blockade roads into Paris and landmarks such as the Arc de Triomphe to protest the proposed deal.
Farmers from the right-wing Coordination Rurale union called for the protests in Paris amid fears the planned free trade agreement with the Mercosur bloc will flood the EU with cheap food imports.
Macron said on social media that France would vote against signing the agreement on Friday, despite having secured "major commitments" from the European Commission.
"The signing of the agreement is not the end of the story. I will continue to fight for the full implementation of the commitments obtained from the European Commission and to protect our farmers," he said on the social media platform X.
Ireland will also vote against the agreement, its deputy prime minister Simon Harris said earlier. But as the European Commission seems to have secured the support of Italy, the agreement is likely to be adopted during Friday's vote.
The trade deal, backed by countries such as Germany and Spain, is a political hot potato for the French government, with municipal elections in March and the far right polling strongly ahead of elections to replace Macron in 2027.
French Farm Minister Annie Genevard repeated on Thursday that, even if EU members backed the accord, France would continue to fight against it in the European Parliament, whose approval will also be required for the agreement to enter into force.
This week the European Commission proposed making 45 billion euros ($52.42 billion) of EU funding available earlier to farmers in the bloc's next seven-year budget and agreed to cut import duties on some fertilizers in a bid to win over countries wavering in their support of Mercosur.
On top of Mercosur, farmers also protested against high costs and excessive local regulation and demanded an end to a government policy of culling herds of cows in response to a highly contagious cattle disease, which they consider excessive.
"We are between resentment and despair. We have a feeling of abandonment, with Mercosur being an example," Stephane Pelletier, a senior member of the Coordination Rurale union, told Reuters beneath the Eiffel Tower.
The farmers overran police checkpoints to enter the city, driving along the Champs Elysees avenue and blocking the road around the Arc de Triomphe before dawn, before gathering in front of the National Assembly.
National Assembly President Yael Braun-Pivet was booed and jostled when she stepped outside the assembly's gates to talk with the Coordination Rurale protesters.
Dozens of tractors obstructed highways leading into the capital ahead of the morning rush hour, including the A13 leading into Paris from the western suburbs and Normandy, causing 150 km of traffic jams, the transport minister said.
Farmers from the FNSEA and young farmers unions joined them later at the Eiffel Tower in a calm demonstration.
"We're going to import products from the rest of the world that don't meet our standards – that's not possible, that's unacceptable. So we're staying mobilized, we're carrying on," Arnaud Rousseau, president of the FNSEA farm union told reporters, referring to the Mercosur deal.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said more protest actions were planned across the country by farmers on Friday, adding he hoped there would be, as was the case on Thursday, no violence or major damage. He also said the tractors had started leaving Paris.
