Armoured vehicles sent in to protect Paris from protesting farmers

Armoured military vehicles and helicopters have been dispatched to protect Paris as French farmers bring their “week of danger” to the capital.

Some 15,000 police and gendarmes have been deployed to prevent tractors from entering Paris and other major French cities.

Farmers who say they are suffering from low income, red tape and punitive environmental policies compared to less stringent neighbours are threatening to cut off all eight main road entrances to the French capital.

Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister, said he had ordered security forces to show moderation, but also warned farmers not to cross certain red lines. The included cutting off Paris’s main airports or Rungis, the world’s biggest fresh food market, south of the capital.

“We don’t intend to allow government buildings, or tax collection buildings, or grocery stores to be damaged or trucks transporting foreign produce to be stopped. Obviously, that is unacceptable,” he said.

Armoured gendarme vehicles have been stationed near “the fridge of Paris”, as some call Rungis, and forces were on standby, Mr Darmanin said.

They would be joined by “mobile force units” and “helicopters to watch and anticipate tractor movements”.

A group of 30 tractors left Agen, southwestern France, on Monday morning with the aim of “occupying” the market.

Speaking on BFMTV, Véronique Le Floc’h, president of the hard-Right-leaning Coordination Rurale union, said that the intention “is not to enter Rungis” but to “show the consequences if there are no more farmers tomorrow”.

She said that she wanted to “identify the proportion of imports and what type of products come in” to the market.

The farmers are due to set up positions on Monday afternoon at 2pm local time on orders from FNSEA, France’s largest farmers’ union, and the Jeunes Agriculteurs (Young Farmers) union.

The government has tried to appease the protestors with a string of concessions in recent days. On Friday, it dropped plans to gradually reduce state subsidies on agricultural diesel and promised a reduction in red tape and an easing of environmental regulations.

Farmers’ organisations said that was not enough and pledged to step up the pressure.

However, most insist they have no intention of actually entering the capital.

“Going into Paris is like walking into the lion’s den,” said Fabien Frebourg, vice-president of the Jeunes Agriculteurs de l’Oise. “Here, we’re staying outside and at least we’ll be autonomous”, he told BFMTV.

Adding to the chaos on French roads, taxi drivers staged their own protest on Monday against what they say is insufficient pay for the transport of patients by the French health services.

Their go-slow protests have started choking motorways across the country, including the A13 leading into Paris.

Unité SGP Police union called on the “government to find the social fire extinguisher, to put out the fire to try and calm the situation” to prevent “other trades getting involved”, which would “paralyse the system”.

“We’re five months away from the Olympic Games, the eyes of the world are on France, and a social crisis that we couldn’t control would cast a bad impression on the rest of the world”, said Jean-Christophe Couvy, the union’s chief, on France Info radio.

The government has been trying to keep discontent among farmers from spreading ahead of European Parliament elections in June, seen as a key test for President Emmanuel Macron’s government.

During a visit to a farm on Sunday, Gabriel Attal, the prime minister, said more concessions would be forthcoming after the first batch was announced on Friday.

“I want us to clarify things and see what extra measures we can take” to meet farmers’ complaints that they face unfair competition, he said.

Some politicians accused the government of being too lenient with “militant” action that has included a government building near Carcassonne, southwestern France, having its windows blown out and a supermarket collapse under the weight of manure at a protest in Agen.

“Once you accept (violent) action by some, you shouldn’t be surprised if others start to follow suit”, said Stéphane Le Foll, former Socialist agriculture minister.

“Gérald Darmanin’s initial statements lacked rules and reminders of the rules”, he added.

The blockades could last until Thursday, when a European Council summit will be held in Brussels.

Marc Fesneau, agriculture minister, said on Monday that Mr Macron would make a push for more pro-farming policies at the summit to address grievances shared by many farmers in the bloc.

Mr Fesneau added he would travel to Brussels this week to seek to soften EU rules on agricultural land that require 4 per cent to remain fallow under new green rules.

French farmers have complained this could hurt their businesses, and the government in Paris pledged to lobby on their behalf in Brussels.

France can expect “a difficult week”, said Mr Darmanin.

Gabriel Attal, France’s new prime minister, has placed himself on the front line by visiting farmers out in the field, seeking to calm the group.

At a farm near the city of Tours on Sunday, Frédérique Alexandre, one local FNSEA unionist, told him: “If you hadn’t come, I think the area would have been on fire this morning.

“It’s good that I’m here, then,” Mr Attal responded. “I don’t know if that should make you smile,” retorted the union leader, seeing it as a sign of vanity, according to Le Monde.

Taken aback, Mr Attal hit back: “You know, I’m presenting my government policy statement on Tuesday. I was smiling because I decided not to follow the advice I was being given [to prepare for it] and to go out into the field.

“Even if it’s difficult, even if I get yelled at, I don’t want the flow of dialogue to break,” he said later.