Fuming French Farmers Pile Pressure On Paris

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Jan, 2024) France's government scrambled on Thursday to come up with answers to farmers blocking motorways and demonstrating at public buildings across the country, after a fuel tax rise detonated long-standing resentments.

It is a first crisis for recently-installed Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who summoned his economy, environment and agriculture chiefs for a meeting to decide on aid measures and fend off a possible blockade of the capital.

With Paris under pressure to defuse tensions just months ahead of key European Parliament polls, government sources told AFP that initial responses to rural unions' demands could be announced Thursday or Friday.

Farmers were out in force on many motorways, city ring roads and traffic roundabouts nationwide following the death Tuesday of a farmer and her daughter at a roadblock.

"We're caught in a pincer effect between rising costs and falling prices for our produce," said Dominique Kretz, a wheat, corn and beetroot farmer among several hundred blocking the M35 motorway near eastern city Strasbourg.

Some routes were blocked around the southern city Avignon and towards the Mediterranean port Marseille, according to traffic information website Bison Fute.

And in western city Bordeaux, around 15 tractors launched a go-slow in both directions around the ring road.