The anger of French farmers do not fall back. On Tuesday, in France, demonstrations were held to denounce the free trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur. Farmers and grain gathered in front of the prefectures of Aurillac, Saint-Étienne, Lille and le Mans. They were also present in numbers in the Gers and the Tarn. “The spirit, it is to mobilize against this agreement, which creates enormous distortions of competition between farmers in france and the other”, summarized the leaders of the Young Farmers (JA).

” READ ALSO – Mercosur: the anger rises from all sides

In the Loire, sixty farmers have symbolically laid down their garments and their boots in front of the prefecture of Saint-Étienne. They then informed the prefect of “the lack of coherence between this agreement and the commitments on the stated objectives for a healthy diet,” explained Guillaume Tailland, director of the FDSEA. At Lille, about thirty people held a barbecue in front of the prefecture with tractors and signs tricolor: “I like to eat French”. At le Mans, they were a quarantine with tractors and a trailer full of tires to park in front of the cathedral.

“we Were made to believe that we were on the island, european, and today, we can see that the island’s european is more waterproof then that we were told to get in line,” said Thierry Coue, president of the FRSEA (regional federation) in Britain. “There’s a lot of revolt and dissatisfaction,” says the president of the FNSEA, Christiane Lambert. “We cannot on one side say: ‘take to the range, made beautiful, made well, made well-being’ and at the same time open the floodgates for anything-goes”, she added. “The beef industry will be competitive, with production cost very low, with a health quality level zero. Jair Bolsonaro has just received approval of plant protection products banned in Europe. How will we control what is important?” questioned Wednesday morning by Jean-Baptiste Moreau, a farmer and member of LREM of the Creuse, on RTL.

“A trade agreement is not in itself bad,”

Emmanuel Macron

Brussels has tried to reassure the farmers yesterday to the effect that provisions have been taken to protect sectors sensitive as the beef and sugar, with quotas. It has especially highlighted the introduction of a “safeguard clause” which will suspend the agreements in the event of “damage” in economic in a sub-sector due to an increase in “unexpected and significant” imports. But the farmers do not believe in it. “It’s more than a gas plant that other thing. I do not see how this mechanism protects the French agricultural sector”, summed up Jean-Baptiste Moreau.

“READ ALSO – Why the free trade agreement with Mercosur could destroy our agriculture

” SEE ALSO – Mercosur: France should ratify the treaty?

Mercosur : France should ratify the treaty ? – Look on Figaro Live

While promising an assessment of the impacts and a monitoring work of “independent and transparent” by experts, Emmanuel Macron, expressed his annoyance in the face of the anger of the farmers. “These are the same people who come to me to ask ‘Mr. president, help us access the chinese market (…) to the brazilian market, to market’. But the world saw how when one has access to a market? The market wants access to us!” he recalled from Brussels. “To those who say that any trade agreement is wrong for me to say in these cases how they will dress, feed, move (…) A trade agreement is not bad in itself (…) It is not necessary that there is a kind of neo-protectionism that settles in saying, ‘the other is necessarily a bad thing'”, he insisted.

The mobilization continues

“the president of the Republic addressed in the naive free-swinger”

Jean-Baptiste Moreau, mp LREM

The speech of the head of the State does not pass into the ranks of the farmers. “This is a bad agreement, I’m pretty clear on it. The president of the Republic said that it was necessary to find a path between the naïve and the european protectionism idiot at the Trump. But as for Mercosur, he leans in the naive free-swinger”, slice Jean-Baptiste Moreau, who promises to vote against the text when it arrives in parliament.

By then, the farmers promise to amplify their engagement. Young Farmers (JA) have launched a national call with the main trade union FNSEA, requiring “a lot of output of tractors”. In the Hollow, a major event is scheduled for next week. “Do not import agriculture which we do not want to”, claims the FNSEA. This last is also called the consumers to react. “Our salvation will happen by the consumers who will say: ‘this is not what we want in our bases'”.