Farmers block the A7 highway, on January 24, 2024 near Montelimar, as they protest against taxation and falling incomes. Pics/AFP (Text/AP)
Roadblocks were spreading in many French regions, one day after a farmer and her daughter died due to a traffic collision at a protest barricade
Farmers have also been turning road signs upside down to protest what they argue are nonsensical agricultural policies
Some were planning to protest in Brussels, home to EU headquarters, where French farmers' union Rural Coordination called for a demonstration against the 'ever-increasing constraints of European regulations and ever-lower incomes'
The protests are the first major challenge for newly appointed Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who took office two weeks ago, and his government. Attal met with farmers' unions representatives on Tuesday
Following the meeting, Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau promised to make new proposals to respond to the crisis by the end of the week, including regarding food prices and simplifying regulations
Arnaud Rousseau, head of France's major farmers union FNSEA, said his organization would release a list of 40 necessary measures later on Wednesday. Speaking on France 2 television, he said the protest movement was aimed at ¿getting quick results."
On Tuesday, a car carrying three people rammed into a barricade of straw bales in the town of Pamiers, in the Ariege region of southwestern France
A 36-year-old female farmer was killed. Her 12-year-old daughter died later in hospital, the local prosecutor said in a statement. Police detained the three occupants of the car for questioning
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