Policemen and tractors on highway outside Paris.
French farmers surround Paris - block highways
French farmers have made real the threat of a blockade of Paris and eight major access roads to the capital are now completely at a standstill, writes The Guardian. Hundreds of tractors block traffic with demands for better conditions and higher pay for the country's farmers.
President Emmanuel Macron has called an emergency meeting, and according to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, 15,000 police have been called in to prevent the farmers from entering Paris or other cities where protests are ongoing.
The BBC's reporter has spoken to one of the farmers participating in the blockade. According to him, the government has made it almost impossible for French farmers to compete with other EU countries through, among other things, higher requirements for climate-friendly production.
The government has already withdrawn plans to gradually reduce subsidies on agricultural diesel and promised to ease environmental regulations, writes Reuters.
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Green rules and food from South America arouse fear
Should Emmanuel Macron put pressure on Brussels to ease the demands of the EU's Green Deal? That is the question the French newspaper Le Figaro asks its readers.
A whopping 89 percent answered yes to the question.
The skepticism towards the EU's climate regulations is not least visible among French farmers, who have started a blockade of the capital Paris in protest. The green deal contains, among other things, demands to halve the use of pesticides by 2030 and to switch to organic farming to a greater extent.
"These targets are seen by many farmers as unrealistic and expensive," writes the BBC's Laura Gozzi.
The EU's free trade agreement with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay has also raised fears that French food will lose competitiveness, writes Thibaut Déléaz in an analysis in Le Figaro.
"They fear that the European market will be flooded with more competitive products because they would not have to respect European environmental and animal welfare standards for their production," he writes.
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French farmers threaten blockade of Paris
Farmers in France are threatening to implement a blockade of Paris to get through better conditions and higher wages, several media reports.
The blockade is planned for today and would mean that several major highways around the capital are blocked, writes AFP. Already, farmers have used tractors and other larger vehicles to block roads around France.
The country's government has tried to meet the farmers' demands. Among other things, Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau has promised to present new measures to appease the farmers' demands tomorrow, Tuesday.
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