Hundreds of farmers from Bourgogne-Franche-Comté demonstrated sometimes violently, in Dijon, Tuesday, to influence the negotiations of the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), underway in Brussels. “Save your peasant”; “Farmers in danger”; “Macron, don’t be stupid. It is soon the elections ”, one could read on the signs brandished by the demonstrators or hung on the tractors parading in the Burgundian capital.
The 300 or so tractors and 400 demonstrators first stopped in front of the Regional Directorate for the Environment, Planning and Housing (Dréal), breaking through the entrance gate with a backhoe loader and covering the access to heaps. manure, tires, pallets and straw then set on fire.
Three arrests were made, said the police, while the prefecture mentioned an injured policeman and a forced roadblock. According to the newspaper The public good, the president of the Young Farmers of Côte-d’Or, Antoine Carré, was among those arrested and was taken into police custody. A source close to the file confirms the information. The farmers refuse to leave until they are released.
Use of force reiterated rue de Mulhouse. The driver of the machine that forced the police roadblock was arrested.
– Prefect Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Prefect Côte-d’Or (@ Prefet21_BFC) April 6, 2021
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Demonstration: the demonstrators on foot will disperse, but the tractors will not leave until our 2 demonstrators are returned to us by the police pic.twitter.com/thaO2608jE — FDSEA de Côte d’Or (@FDSEA21) April 6, 2021 —
“Dréal officials are there to shoot the peasants, not for the economy or the environment. They manage to stop everything in agriculture and they are there to destroy the breeding ”, stormed Antoine Carré, president of the Young Farmers (JA) of Côte-d’Or. Scattered with tear gas, the demonstrators subsequently wanted to go to Place de la République, in the city center, but they clashed with the police who again used tear gas. On the sidelines of this event, an AFP photographer was attacked by a group of participants who stole a memory card from him. “We’re not here for fun. Some are desperate, ”explains Christophe Chambon, president of the FRSEA Bourgogne Franche-Comté, during a speech. The event, organized at the call of the Regional Federation of Agricultural Unions (FRSEA) of Burgundy Franche-Comté, was intended in particular to demand “a balanced and fair common agricultural policy”. READ ALSO> The farmers of Seine-et-Marne mobilized: “Without the help of the Common Agricultural Policy, we cannot survive”
Newsletter It brings me back The newsletter that improves your purchasing power — The FRSEA, supported by the JA, wants in particular increased aid for “intermediate zones” which, like Bourgogne Franche-Comté, have production potential limited by natural constraints. The details of the future CAP, which will enter into force in 2023, are still being negotiated in Brussels. The prefect “condemned the degradation” which he attributed to “a minority which tarnishes the cause of farmers”. The rue de la préfecture is said to be in a very degraded state due to the manure spills. “I regret it all the more since the Minister of Agriculture (Julien Denormandie Editor’s note), who has already returned to Côte-d’Or a few weeks ago, has planned to see the farmers again next week”, continued the prefect, specifying that the region received aid from the CAP to the tune of 600 million euros for nearly 16,800 farms.
READ ALSO> CAP reform: farmers block the Ile-de-France region against “unacceptable and inapplicable” measures Some 70% of French farmers are potentially eligible for eco-schemes, “green” financing of the next version of European CAP aid, assured Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie on the day of the event. But “the farmers who would not fit into the nails to receive this aid, would lose 60 to 80 euros of aid per hectare”, according to Damien Greffin, president of the FNSEA Grand Bassin Parisien. “We have obtained that this eco-regime, which is the new agro-ecology mechanism, is mandatory for all member states and not only in France, to finally fight against this unfair competition which made the main virtuous practices were made in our country and not in other member states ”, added the Minister. France is currently working on its national strategic plan (PSN), its variation of the future CAP, which it must present to the European Commission in June, like its neighbors in the EU. –
“Some are desperate”
600 million euros in aid for nearly 16,800 farms
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