French farmers protesting pay and conditions and a prospective EU-Latin America trade deal have lifted a blockade on the Spanish border after an expression of support from Prime Minister Michel Barnier.
The hard-line farmers' union Coordination Rurale (CR) lifted its roadblock for heavy trucks on the A9 motorway on Wednesday, which links south-western France with Spain's northeast.
Organisers had earlier said that they intended to maintain the barricade, designed to provoke shortages of produce in French supermarkets.
Barnier also spoke with another CR branch from the western Lot-et-Garonne region by phone.
"Your Prime Minister knows and respects farmers. I will do everything I can ... uphold the very many commitments that have been made," said Barnier – a former agriculture minister – in comments captured by multiple media cameras.
Taking to social media, Barnier posted on X: "I hear the anger, the tension and the incomprehension of farmers about the proposed EU-Mercosur agreement. France is firmly opposed to it."
Concessions 'not honoured'
So far the French political class – including President Emmanuel Macron – has echoed rural opposition to the Mercosur deal.
Barnier's office stated that he had also spoken to Arnaud Rousseau – head of the heavyweight FNSEA farmers' union – by phone.
In early 2024, farmers launched massively disruptive demonstrations including blockading many motorways across France and Europe, over issues including low prices for their produce and environmental regulation.
French protesters secured concessions from the government – but delivery was interrupted by President Emmanuel Macron's call for new elections in June.
Resistance has been reinflamed by the prospect of an EU deal with the Mercosur bloc – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay – that would create the world's largest free-trade zone.
"The aim is to again put on the pressure to speak out against things that cannot be accepted. And, as I keep saying, always while respecting property and people," Rousseau told Franceinfo on Wednesday.
'Unacceptable' methods of protest
The FNSEA chief was looking to set his outfit apart from CR, some of whose members have this week dumped waste outside regional government offices, broken into the French biodiversity authority and set up the motorway blockade.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard told broadcaster France 2 that such methods were "unacceptable" and risked wearing down widespread public sympathy for farmers.
The latest farmers' protests come weeks before elections to regional Chambers of Agriculture, at which smaller unions CR and Confederation Paysanne hope to loosen the FNSEA's tight grip.
On Wednesday, Confederation Paysanne targeted the Rouen headquarters of Haropa Port – a state-owned firm that runs the Le Havre, Rouen and Paris ports.
"The only people who benefit from free trade are the food industry, large-scale farms, traders, chemical manufacturers and finance that speculates on all of it," said Mathieu Grenier, one of around 20 farmers demonstrating at the offices.
"For farmers, there will be a lot more losers than winners," he added.
