French farmers begin second day of Paris motorway blockade
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00:00 Well, we'll start here in France, where hundreds of farmers have blocked the main highways
00:04 all around Paris.
00:05 This is the second day they've been on their slow-moving tractors in hopes of pressuring
00:09 the government into helping them out of the dire conditions they've found themselves
00:13 in in the wake of the war in Ukraine.
00:16 The farmers are now trying to get concrete answers from France's new prime minister,
00:20 Gabrielle Attal, who's due to make a statement on their situation at 3 p.m. this afternoon.
00:25 France 24's Liza Kamenov is on the A6 highway just south of Paris.
00:29 She joins me now from there.
00:31 Liza, what's the situation like where you are?
00:36 As you said, Jeannie, I am near Villers-Bidges, south of Paris, and you can see behind me
00:41 you have a few farmers gathering around a fire with food and drinks.
00:46 They have been camping here all night since their arrival Monday afternoon, and they plan
00:51 on staying here for as long as needed until the government meets their demands, whether
00:56 it be the end of this week or even longer.
00:59 They do not care.
01:00 They are ready to stick it out.
01:03 And behind them you have a very long line of tractors stretching for just over a kilometer,
01:08 and these are some of the 500 vehicles that the police have reported are blocking major
01:13 roads around the capital.
01:15 And on this 11th day of the farmers' action, the aim is the same.
01:19 They are putting pressure on the government to hear them out, to give them answers, to
01:25 give them a clear set of measures, not just on a national level but also on a European
01:32 Union level.
01:34 So Liza, you've been talking to a lot of the farmers this morning.
01:37 They do look like they are settled in.
01:39 What are their main concerns?
01:41 What do they really hope for the most?
01:44 So speaking to the farmers this morning, they are repeating a very long list of concerns,
01:52 and this includes them feeling that their industry is being strangled and is perishing
01:57 under excessive farming regulations that's imposed in France on top of the EU-wide regulation
02:05 on the farming sector.
02:06 Of course, they also have higher production costs.
02:09 They feel that they are all selling at a loss, and they feel that their EGLIM law, the agricultural
02:14 law, is not being respected.
02:16 This is a law that is meant to ensure that they are selling for as much as they are producing.
02:23 But also they have laborious paperwork to do which slows down their production, and
02:27 an EU-wide Green Deal which they say is simply not compatible with farming.
02:33 And they are also feeling threatened from free trade agreements and imports from countries
02:38 that do not adhere to the same regulations as them.
02:41 Now one farmer gave me an example of this.
02:43 France has banned a pesticide on beet crop which is usually used to prevent viruses.
02:49 Now French farmers can no longer use this pesticide, and they are at a disadvantage
02:53 with their competitors from other countries.
02:56 So what they really want right now is a rigid national farming plan that can impose long-standing
03:03 changes, not temporary measures, because they're concerned not just for the current situation
03:08 of the sector but for the future of the sector as well.