Sowing Rage

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Angry farmers staged dozens of demonstrations across France Monday, protesting against a trade pact between the European Union and the Mercosur trade bloc of South American countries, which they say will threaten their livelihoods, the Associated Press reported.

Around 300 farmers protested in the southeastern town of Le Cannet-des-Maures, where one sign unfurled along a road read, “Stop the promises, start with actions.” Local farmers also placed a cross next to a mock gallows with a message reading, “France’s agriculture in danger,” Radio France Internationale wrote.

In the eastern city of Lyon, farmers tore down municipal signs and dumped them in front of a museum. Protest organizers said more than 80 protests were being staged across the country.

The protests echo similar ones last winter across Europe over Ukrainian imports, with farmers blocking roads and highways for weeks.

The EU-Mercosur trade agreement, an agriculture trade partnership between the EU and Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Uruguay, would create the world’s largest free trade zone. The deal was initially agreed to in 2019, but negotiations slowed after opposition from European farmers and some European countries.

This new wave of protests and anger from French farmers stems from fears that the agreement could be finalized at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro this week. The farmers say they deal with excessive bureaucracy, have had poor harvests, and have already seen their income drop substantially over the past few years. Now, farmers worry that the Mercosur deal will impact their incomes further by being forced to compete with cheaper products that face fewer regulations and environmental standards.

Meanwhile, farmers say Monday’s protests are just the beginning. A spokesman for France’s top farming union, Yohann Barbe, said that the scale of the protests was going “to be unprecedented,” adding that, “Farmers are still just as irritated as ever by a government that is dragging its feet.”

On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that France would “continue to oppose” the trade deal while visiting Argentina’s President Javier Milei ahead of the G20 summit. Other European nations such as Germany and Spain, support the deal, hoping to expand the EU’s network of trade and maintain economic influence geopolitically.