[UPDATE] Farmers' Protest: French Government Announces New Measures To Quell Anger

The French government announced new measures in an attempt to quell the anger of protesting farmers who have blocked roads and highways across the country with tractors.

The European nation's new prime minister, Gabriel Attal, showed promises of assistance on Tuesday. These new measures include emergency cash aid and controls on imported food that seek to address the issues that farmers are currently facing.

French Government's New Measures

(Photo : Alain JOCARD / AFP) (ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images)
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced new measures in the government's latest attempt to quell the anger of farmers who are protesting across the country.

The protesters are demanding better pay, fewer constraints, and lower costs as they camped out on hay-strewn highways and encircled Paris. They are posing the biggest challenge to Attal since he was appointed less than a month ago.

Since becoming the prime minister, he has sought to assuage the farmers' concerns in a sweeping policy speech on Tuesday at the National Assembly. He said that they need to listen to the farmers who he described as working and worried about their future and their livelihood.

Attal argued that the goal is clear, which is guaranteeing fair competition, especially so that regulations that are being applied to farmers in the country are also respected by foreign products, as per the Associated Press.

The French prime minister also said that protection against cheap imports is one of the main demands of the farmers. Attal also promised emergency aid to struggling wine producers and quick payments of EU subsidies to others.

He said that food retailers who do not comply with a law meant to ensure a fair share of revenues for farmers will have to pay a fine. French farmers spent several days in protest and also spent nights at barricades on Monday and Tuesday.

They then pressed their case that growing and rearing food has now become too difficult and sufficiently lucrative. They also rejected pro-agriculture measures that the prime minister announced last week, calling them insufficient.

Attal also said that he had gathered a coalition of 22 European Union countries to agree on an EU waiver on fallow land. He noted that they are now close to achieving a new extension of the exemption to benefit farmers, according to Aljazeera.

Farmers' Protest

The prime minister pledged that his government stands ready to resolve the current crisis without ambiguity" and praised the agriculture sector as "our force and our pride." Currently, farmers are required to meet certain conditions in order to receive EU subsidies, including leaving 4% of farmland to "non-productive" areas so that nature can recover.

The president of the main and powerful agriculture union FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, said that there is "total determination" among the farmers. He was received by Attal and it was announced that they were continuing negotiations between the union and the government.

Rousseau said during an interview that there needs to be a "change of course" by the country's government as well as "symbolic emergency measures." He said that the impression he got from the prime minister during their meeting was that he was "ready to go further on all issues."

Amid the mass protests, farmers have managed to avoid police attempts to stop them as they claimed that their aim is to block access to the Rungis food market, which is the largest in Europe and located roughly 15 kilometers from Paris, said EuroNews.