PARIS: The French government is considering further help for the country's farmers, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said on Sunday, as their nationwide protests to demand better pay and living conditions showed no sign of abating.
Farmers in France, the European Union's biggest agricultural producer, complain they face unfair competition from rivals in more lightly regulated countries. To press their cause, they have set up roadblocks on major roads over the last week.
"We will look at any other measures we can take regarding those aspects of unfair competition," Attal told reporters.
Already on Friday, the government dropped plans to gradually reduce state subsidies on agricultural diesel, and announced other steps to reduce the financial and administrative pressures farmers face.
Farmers, however, want more.
The FNSEA, France's biggest farmers' union, has said it will continue protests and other unions have threatened roadblocks around Paris and the Rungis food market near the capital.
Farmers in other European countries, including Germany and Poland, have also staged protests, saying the European Union is not doing enough to protect them from cheaper production elsewhere.
Meanwhile, two climate activists threw soup onto the glass protecting the Mona Lisa in the Louvre in Paris on Sunday, an independent news agency reported on X.
The museum could not be reached to confirm the incident, which was reported by CLPress. A video clip posted on X showed the two women splattering the famous painting with a thick, orange-coloured liquid. One of them then removed her jacket to reveal a T-shirt with the slogan "Ripostealimentaire" (food response).
Museum staff then erected screens around the Leonardo da Vinci painting. The Mona Lisa, which has been behind special protective glass since2005, has been vandalised before. Cream cake was smeared over it in May 2022. - AFP
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