A farmer and her daughter died this Tuesday after a vehicle crashed into a roadblock in southwestern France. The accident, which also injured the husband and father, came amid farmers' protests in the country, a mobilization that is growing daily and causing concern within the government of centrist Emmanuel Macron. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal met on Monday with the sector's main union and will do so this Tuesday with two others.
The victims, a 35-year-old farmer and her 14-year-old daughter, were run over at 5:45 a.m. during a roadblock in Pamiers, a town in southwestern France just a few kilometers from the border with Spain. Both were with their 40-year-old husband and father, who was seriously injured. The Foix public prosecutor's office announced the death of the teenager, who was in a “critical condition”, in the evening.
Initial indications indicate that the accident was not intentional. The public prosecutor's office has initiated an investigation into “serious negligent homicide and serious bodily harm”. According to the State Department, the three occupants of the vehicle were arrested. The car crashed into a straw wall erected as part of the mobilization that has rocked the country since Thursday.
“This drama legitimizes our struggle even more,” reacted Luc Smessaert, vice-president of the agricultural union FNSEA, the first in France, to BFMTV. The country's farmers have been protesting for days against rising energy costs and European environmental regulations. France is the leading power in the European Union sector and the first recipient of CAP funds, the union's common agricultural policy.
Several highways in the country have been closed since Thursday, including the A-64, a road that connects Toulouse in the south with Bayonne in the southwest. The mobilization has spread across the entire area, from north to south and east to west, with tractors blocking the path using bales of straw.
The major unions are threatening to tighten their actions. “The scale of what is being prepared is not changed by this tragedy,” said Arnaud Rousseau, president of the FNSEA, the powerful union founded in 1946 that counts 212,000 members. “The fight continues,” he emphasized to radio station RMC.
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Jérome Bayle, one of the protagonists of the protest movement, warned on Monday that farmers were ready to paralyze the capital Paris and boycott the next agricultural fair in February to make the authorities listen. The moment is the key. The European elections are in June.
Meanwhile, the government is trying to prevent the initial sparks from turning into a fire. “I have asked the government to mobilize broadly to find concrete solutions to the difficulties they face.” said President Emmanuel Macron on the social networkafter the tragedy.
The executive branch has already taken the first steps. The new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal met with the two major unions on Monday, but without announcing any concrete measures. This Tuesday they will also meet with other unions to try to calm the crisis.
It is his first test since taking office on January 11th as successor to Élisabeth Borne. Monday's meeting was also attended by Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau, who has promised a response from the government before the end of the week.
French farmers are calling for measures ranging from administrative simplifications to faster compensation in the event of a disaster. The first protests began in the fall when signs were thrown down at town entrances warning of feelings of abandonment.
Discontent is fertile ground for the Rassemblement Nationale, the far-right party that is leading polls in France heading into the upcoming European elections in June. At the weekend, its president, Jordan Bardella, traveled to the Gironde department in the southwest to speak to industry representatives. Attal did the same, about 600 kilometers further north.
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