For the first time in two weeks, the streets of France will experience a calm day. The main French farmers’ unions called this Thursday for lift the blockades that have kept dozens of highways and roads closed to traffic for two weeksshortly after a new series of aid measures announced by the Government.

“The movement does not stop, it transforms“, stated in a press conference the president of the National Federation of Agricultural Operators’ Unions (FNSEA), Arnaud Rousseau, who has warned that there will be new mobilizations if in 15 days no announcements are made made by the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, and if they do not come into force between now and June.

Arnaud Gaillot, head of Young Farmers, a sister organization of the FNSEA, explained that the request of “suspend the blockade and enter a new mode of action” had been taken after consulting with the bases in view of the commitments made by Attal. The unions positively valued the “tangible advances” made this Thursday by the Executive, which complement the promises of last Friday, which the farmers considered insufficient, and that in any case they must be carried out with emergency measures.

Among them, they mentioned actions to favor the generational change of farm workers with automated tax exemptions, or the fight against fraud of products that are presented as being of French origin but are not. Rousseau has pointed out that there are issues that “are not up to par and that will have to be clarified.”

They support Macron on Mercosur and criticism of the EU

These two hegemonic unions supported the position of rejection of the Government of Emmanuel Macron to the free trade agreement that the European Union discusses with Mercosur and urged that Paris maintain it. But, above all, they have stressed that they want to see that the “food sovereignty“is registered in the legislation as a priority.

Faced with the “listening” attitude that they appreciated on the part of the French Government, the agricultural unions were much more critical of the EU, an organization “too technocratic” in his opinion. Rousseau has denounced the “deafness” of Brussels versus to the demands of farmers not only in France but also in other EU members, such as the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Spain.

“Europe is our future”, but the EU’s agricultural policies, both in terms of resources and its vision for the future, do not respect the dignity of the profession of farmers “who have the noble function of feeding us,” complained the president of the FNSEA. He has also denounced that “the European Commissioner for Agriculture (Janusz Wojciechowski) has not been up to the task” in the current context of protests.

With the deadline of June to see the improvements promised by the French Government materialize, the month in which the elections to the European Parliament will be held, the French agricultural unions also warned that they expect from the EU “strong decisions to protect the community market.” In a message addressed to their members, they praised the responsible behavior and the absence of violence in the demonstrations, which since October have mobilized some 40,000 farmers. But they stressed that “No one doubts that if the results are not up to par“They will mobilize again on a large scale as in the last 15 days.