Ten thousand grain parade through the streets of Paris
Red, green and blue: a parade of 1300 tractors brand new, red lights lit and flags fluttering in the colors of the FNSEA and JA flooded streets yesterday in eastern Paris. At the wheel, the grain of fourteen French regions accompanied by 10,000 farmers from manifest their anger. A resounding success despite a period conducive to field work.
"The mobilization is at the height of the crisis across the world of agriculture today, said Dominique Barrau Le Figaro, number two of the majority union. Farmers expect concrete action from Europe and the French government, including a plan to lower taxes, social and environmental ".
A double shock
Even if they are not the worst off, farmers crops are facing a dual shock. The precipitous drop in market prices since 2008.Thus a loss of 80-90 euros per hectare of European aid after their redistribution last year, to the most needy in the Health Check of the CAP. A very easily accepted by those farmers who apply, however the government to intervene immediately in the markets to send prices back.
"There are currently 4 to 5 million tonnes of wheat in excess inventory that could not be 0 because of the damage in rail freight and port. They must elapse before the next harvest if prices will continue to decline, warns Michel Masson, vice president of the FNSEA and co-organizer of this event.
A request that the Minister of Agriculture, Bruno Le Maire, and he has heard this morning reiterating the European Commissioner, Dacian Ciolos, visiting Paris."I asked the Commission to intervene on the grain market and make prices go up," he said yesterday at the outlet of the Council of Ministers while urging farmers to "not lose hope."
For beyond this manifestation of discontent, many farmers are going through very difficult times to the point of suicide in extreme cases the rate of one per day is an act of recognition among urban populations they had sought in Paris yesterday. And on this point too, their operation is a success.
"It warms my heart to see Parisians applauded us," says J?r?mine, Young Farmers."They are the ones who feed us and they were not there, we would not be much," says Monique, a passerby who took up the cudgels for the farmers.
The question is whether this mobilization will be more than a flash in the pan and tangible effects. Upcoming dates: May 6 for the first committee to follow up major crops before May 22 and the reunion of all the productions that will invade the Champs-Elysees.
