French farmers maintain protests despite government concessions

PARIS (Reuters) – French farmers maintained a series of nationwide protests on Saturday, arguing government measures announced to quell the demonstrations did not go far enough to meet their demands for better pay and living conditions.

On Friday, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s government dropped plans to gradually reduce state subsidies on agricultural diesel, and announced other steps aimed at reducing the financial and administrative pressures faced by many farmers.

The FNSEA, France’s biggest farming union, said it would keep up its protests and many farmers remained at roadblocks set up by motorways and major roads on Saturday.

“The measures announced by Attal are not enough, they will not help our cash flow,” farmer Natacha Guillemet told BFM TV.

Others stuck to their threat of setting up roadblocks around Paris.

Demonstrators also held a silent march in the northern French town of Beauvais to pay tribute to farmers who have died in recent years, with some having committed suicide due to the stress of their working conditions.

France is the European Union’s biggest agricultural producer and the French farmers’ protests follow similar action in other European countries such as Germany and Poland, with many demonstrators saying they are being hit by globalisation and foreign competition.