Defiant French farmers stick to barricades

PARIS: French farmers protesting over pay, tax and regulation kept up their roadblocks on Thursday as eyes turned to Brussels in hope of more European Union concessions.

Seven blockades remained in place on motorways around Paris late Wednesday, throttling access to the capital. 79 people were in custody after a Wednesday incursion into the Rungis wholesale food market, a vital distribution hub for the capital region’s 12 million people.

They were accused of organizing to carry out property damage, prosecutors in Creteil, southeast of Paris, told AFP late Wednesday.

Truckloads of police backed up by armored vehicles were controlling access to Rungis early thursday, slowing down traffic.

“Our plan will certainly be taking a break and coming back,” said Frederic Ferrand, who led a farmers’ convoy that reached the food market on Wednesday.

Another convoy of tractors heading for Rungis from southwest France was searching for a new route after being held up by police.

President Emmanuel Macron has scheduled a one-on-one interview with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen before an EU leaders’ summit gets under way in Brussels later Thursday.

Macron’s office said the two would discuss “the future of European agriculture,” after more than a week of farmers’ protests.

Initial gestures from the bloc have failed to calm demonstrations and road blockades that have dogged major agricultural powers, especially France.

Paris hailed the moves as a victory for its lobbying of Brussels.

But they have not been enough to soothe the grievances of the farmers.

Brussels has said a contentious free-trade deal with the Latin American bloc Mercosur will not go ahead in its current state, although some farmers want it dropped altogether.

French and Belgian farmers had blocked a border crossing point together late Wednesday to condemn trade bargains they described as “distort competition.”