PARIS: French farmers maintained a series of nationwide protests on Saturday, arguing government measures announced to quell the demonstrations did not go far enough to meet their demands for better pay and living conditions.
On Friday, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal's government dropped plans to gradually reduce state subsidies on agricultural diesel, and announced other steps aimed at reducing the financial and administrative pressures faced by many farmers.
The FNSEA, France's biggest farming union, said it would keep up its protests and many farmers remained at roadblocks set up by motorways and major roads on Saturday.
"The measures announced by Attal are not enough, they will not help our cash flow," farmer Natacha Guillemet told BFM TV.
Others stuck to their threat of setting up roadblocks around Paris.
Demonstrators also held a silent march in the northern French town of Beauvais to pay tribute to farmers who have died in recent years, with some having committed suicide due to the stress of their working conditions.
France is the European Union's biggest agricultural producer and the French farmers' protests follow similar action in other European countries such as Germany and Poland, with many demonstrators saying they are being hit by globalisation and foreign competition.
Some farmers called Attal's pledges an encouraging start, with the road blockade in southern France, where the French prime minister spoke with demonstrators after his announcements, to be lifted on Saturday.
"That is one blockade but there are 100 more blockades. What was announced... does not calm the anger," Rousseau said, adding he was waiting for an invitation from Attal to resume talks on Saturday.
The finance and farm ministers held emergency talks with food industry officials about fair prices for produce - a "number one priority" for farmers who say they are on the sharp end of the government's drive to lower consumer prices.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the government would "double down" on enforcing a law aimed at guaranteeing fair farm-gate prices and vowed to be "pitiless" towards the supermarkets.
Le Maire has previously spent months pressuring food retail giants such as Carrefour and Danone to lower their prices after a phase of high inflation, thereby earning the ire of farmers.
France's protests follow similar action in other European countries, including Germany and Poland, six months ahead of European elections in which the far right - for whom farmers represent a growing constituency - are seen making gains. — Reuters
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