In what may prove to be the first shot across the bow for broader unrest in the months to come, French farmers once again took to their tractors in Lyon on Monday to protest the rising cost of fuel in the country. [some emphasis, links added]
Dozens of farmers took to the A7 motorway to descend upon the Rhône prefecture building in Lyon on Monday following the call of the Rural Coordination agricultural union to demand relief from the soaring energy prices, which have seen the cost of agricultural non-road diesel (GNR) skyrocket from 0.90 to 1.70 euros per litre ($7.50 / gallon) in the past few months, the local LyonMag reported.
The Lyon-based Le Progrès newspaper reported that in an apparent show of force, around 20 tractors encircled one of the two loading points for the TotalEnergies refinery in the Feyzin commune on the outskirts of the city.
Although the refinery protest lasted only around two hours, it demonstrated the farmers’ ability to target critical infrastructure and potentially cause widespread fuel disruptions, as Irish farmers did just last month during similar energy protests.
The leader of the Rhône branch of Rural Coordination, Bertrand Molinier, said:
“We are here to raise the voice of farmers who can no longer do so economically. We have had an increase in costs, but sales prices are not keeping up.
“Today, the economic situation is not good. We need to stop and explain it. We went in front of the refinery this morning, which is a symbol since the latest increase to date is that of GNR. That’s a 70 per cent increase in four months.”
Molinier also pointed to the increased competition French farmers face from international agriculture, which is often produced and sold at uncompetitive rates, given the disparity in labor costs, other expenses, and regulatory burdens.
This issue is likely to become a major bone of contention for farmers in France, which, despite having objected to the European Union’s recently inked free trade deal with the MERCOSUR bloc in South America, will nonetheless see cheaper imports in the coming months.
“Today, we are in competition with products from all over the world, which are produced at low cost, and do not respect any of the standards imposed on us. On the shelf, the consumer has the choice between products which, for some, are two and a half times cheaper and therefore, inevitably, they do not choose our products,” the union boss explained.
Following a meeting between local officials and the farmers on Monday, the head of the CGT union for the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Pierre Monin, said that farmers are reaching the “limit” of their ability to function, adding that they want “structural changes, not small measures.”
The issues facing farmers are likely to play a significant role in the upcoming French elections to replace outgoing President Emmanuel Macron.
National Rally president Jordan Bardella, who has frequently championed the cause of farmers in France, has called for slashing the government’s Value Added Tax (VAT) and the green TICPE taxes to cut consumer costs amid the Iran conflict.
He has also called for restoring a “French price for electricity” by allowing the costs to be indexed at a national level rather than in Brussels.
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