French farmers were caught off guard by Macron’s dissolution of the National Assembly last week. They are now threatening to stage new protests so that their achievements are not lost in the early election campaign. This “ushers in a period of great uncertainty for the French and especially for farmers,” explained the Fédération Nationale des Syndicats d’Exploitants Agricoles (FNSEA), the largest French agricultural organization, in a new press release. The statement points to delays in government payments to farmers promised in March by the outgoing government, in return for the big farm associations ending their protests at that time.
“Three months later, almost a quarter of the farmers involved in these environmental initiatives have still not received the payments they are entitled to,” warned the French farmers’ organization FNSEA and the Jeunes Agriculteurs (Young Farmers) in a press release issued already on June 7, insisting that no further delays occur in the payments.
The farm organizations are now issuing an ultimatum to the government: they must “uncompromisingly adhere” to the June 15 deadline. If the deadline is not met, new protests may be called from June 17 on. More radical farmers groups have already begun to protest, for instance with a highway blockade at the Franco-Spanish border in cooperation with Spanish farmers.
