Farmers promise to ‘besiege’ capital in dispute over regulations, pay and taxes they say are destroying rural life
France has told its farmers that any action to block access to Paris’s main market for fresh food would be crossing a red line as a tractor protest made good on a threat to blockade the city for an indefinite period, stopping traffic on eight main motorways into the capital in a row over regulations, pay and taxes.
As it became clear the farmers planned to encircle the city, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, held a crisis meeting with key cabinet ministers on what was being called “Operation Paris Siege”. Prisca Thevenot, a government spokesperson, said announcements would be made on Tuesday. “The whole government and the president are mobilised,” she said.
About Author
More Stories
Meta faces antitrust claims at trial over Instagram and WhatsApp ownership
‘The sky won’t fall’: China plays down Trump tariff risks as stock markets rally
Nvidia says it will build up to $500bn of US AI infrastructure as chip tariff looms