The “siege of Paris” operation was launched by farmers on Monday, January 29, in the early evening. No fewer than eight highways have been blocked since then.
A week after the start of the mobilization of farmers, and while the first government announcements on Friday had little convinced the protesters, the FNSEA and the Young Farmers of the Greater Paris Basin launched, Monday, January 29, a large-scale operation. Its name says a lot about the objective of the protesters: “siege of Paris”. While the blockades began on Monday, early afternoon, they should be maintained for an “undetermined duration”, detailed the unions during the weekend. If the government has announced that new announcements will be made on Tuesday, in its latest update on the situation, made around 7 pm Monday evening, the management of the roads of Ile-de-France, Sytadin, indicated:
A1 towards Paris: CLOSED at the height of Chennevières-lès-Louvres (95),
A1 towards the province: CLOSED at the height of the town of Épiais-lès-Louvres (95),
A4 towards Paris: CLOSED between Serris (77) and Ferrières-en-Brie (77),
A4 towards the province: CLOSED between Ferrières-en-Brie and Serris (77).
Not only demanding a response from the State, it is at the European level that the movement wants to be heard, and this Thursday, February 1, an extraordinary European Council will take place in Brussels where Emmanuel Macron is expected to speak. The blockades around Paris must therefore be maintained at least until Thursday, according to Stéphane Sanchez, the director of the FNSEA Greater Paris Basin. In order to last, rotations will be put in place and buses chartered to facilitate the journey for farmers coming from afar. In addition to the eight departments in the Paris region – Paris, Seine-et-Marne, Yvelines, Essonne, Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne, and Val-d’Oise – Aisne, Aube, Eure, Eure-et-Loir, Marne, Nord, Oise, Pas-de-Calais, and Seine-Maritime are mobilized.”
The eight blockades organized from January 29 all take place “30 kilometers” from Paris, warned the president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau on RTL. The same goes for his counterpart from the Young Farmers of Ile-de-France, Clément Torpier, who also assured on franceinfo that the protesters do “not intend to enter Paris”. If this turns out to be insufficient, will they dare to advance further into Paris? None of the union leaders has mentioned or ruled out this scenario.
Entering major cities, especially Paris, is now a red line set by the Minister of the Interior. Gérald Darmanin, who has announced the deployment of 15,000 members of the security forces, as well as armored vehicles and helicopters to monitor the progress of the convoys, has assured that the police will not intervene unless a red line is crossed. More than entering Paris, the solution to further harden the movement would be to block other roads such as major national highways, according to the unions.
Some union leaders are making partisan speeches for the Paris blockade, such as Cyrille Milard, president of the Seine-et-Marne FDSEA coordinating the blockades of the A4, A5 and A6 and told Le Parisien that he wants to carry out “a total blockade” of the capital.
The FNSEA and the Young Farmers only aim to block the main highways leading to Paris, but the farmers’ union, Coordination rurale, sees even further and plans to block the Rungis market, a crucial point for the Ile-de-France. Monday morning, a convoy of tractors left Agen to reach Rungis on the evening of January 30 or the morning of January 31. But blocking the Paris national interest market is another red line set by Gérald Darmanin, and if no traffic problems were observed near Rungis this Monday, armored vehicles of law enforcement are monitoring the entrance.
The president of the Coordination rurale, Véronique Le Floc’h, had been hammering the idea of blocking Rungis for several days. At the start of the farmers’ crisis, she had also hinted that “the Agricultural Show could also be blocked.” “There is a deadline, and I think all our politicians should be aware of it. If no response is given quickly, they know full well that the Agricultural Show could heat up,” she said on January 24 on BFMTV. Currently, no major agricultural union has called for a boycott of the event.
