The A1 motorway, the main communication axis between Paris and northern Europe, was blocked in both directions this Friday due to the farmers’ protest. The farmers have also cut the border with Spain along the AP-7 highway in La Jonquera. These are some of the many actions throughout the country awaiting the announcements that the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, must make in the afternoon, to try to calm things down.
The first blockade of the A1 has been carried out near the town of Senlis, about 50 kilometers north of Paris, and a second blockade south of Lille, near the border with Belgium. Hundreds of tractors have entered the expressway to close the passage to traffic at the tolls. The prefecture has authorized the Oise department to cut a segment of the strategic A1, forcing traffic to be diverted onto secondary roads.
Two motorways in the south of France, the A7 and the A9, are closed in a segment of almost 400 kilometers, as announced by the Vinci concessionaire. These are essential routes for truck traffic from Spain to the interior of Europe.
The farmers’ protests are taking place due to the tolerance of the police, who have received orders not to intervene unless the officers themselves are attacked or there are assaults on public buildings. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, has justified this policy and has denied that two standards are applied with respect to other public order crises. Darmanin recalled that during the yellow vest revolt there were direct attacks on the agents, something that has not happened until now.
Attal’s intervention will take place in the department of Haute-Garonne, with the capital Toulouse, one of the main focuses of the farmers’ protest. The prime minister is expected to meet directly with those protesting and announce a first package of measures, which could include the continuation of a subsidy for agricultural diesel and the acceleration of aid for winners whose farms are victims of pests.
