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France Brought to a Standstill by Angry Farmers

12/19/2025 This article was posted by TLB Staff WORLD 0

ER Editor: What occurs to us as we read this story is how a pretty fractured country, fractured through immigration at the very least, can find a common cause that touches people and unites them at the grassroots level. While we don’t believe in the EU’s Mercosur nonsense, using this as a threat is a way to rally people in a psychologically powerful way. And to remind everyone that France should be a major agricultural producer and exporter.

There is a lot of reaction against the militarized police, the Gendarmes, who are sent to block the routes of the farmers in their protests, such as here. 

Recently, these gendarmes were sent in to enforce the euthanization of healthy animals, destroying the livelihoods of these farmers. At least, that is what we are told. We remain sceptical of a lot.

Here’s a powerful tweet —

Translation: Colonel Jean-Charles Maurat, 100% with the farmers. Colonel at 40 years old, which means a future general but he preferred to leave the Gendarmerie rather than serve a power that, even at the time, was already deviating. It seems according to@PoliceRealitesthat law enforcement forces are expressing deep unease in the face of the mobilizations of livestock farmers in Ariège. Between orders to follow and the feeling of betraying “their own,” gendarmes and police officers fear a new social crisis. Apart from 7 brave ones who lowered their shields, we didn’t really feel their unease. Like dehumanized robots, they gassed. They even used, in an unprecedented way, the helicopter to do so. According to@PoliceRealitesagain, a captain of the mobile gendarmerie gathered the confidences of his men after their intervention. Their assessment is unequivocal: a profound discouragement is sweeping through the ranks. The situation seems absurd to them: defending the farmers yesterday against radical ecologist militants, and today using tear gas against these same operators. This unease is not limited to an isolated squadron. The entire mobilized personnel shares this moral suffering. Law enforcement has the impression of turning against a part of the rural population with which they traditionally maintain bonds of social and cultural belonging. The impression of turning against a part of the population? Let’s be clear, this is not an impression but a reality and it’s not just a part of the population but the entire population that you harass all day long. Police officers, gendarmes, remember your exploits against the yellow vests, the nurses, and even the firefighters. Police officers, gendarmes, remember how you controlled and fined during the fake Covid pandemic. It is still time, and soon it will be too late, to pull yourselves together and stand by the people martyred by a nutcase holed up in his golden palace. Link to Colonel Jean-Charles Maurat’s message. youtube.com/shorts/uQQhHbR via

@YouTube

Translation: « We knew it would be intense, but unfortunately they’re beating us, the French, the guys who work every day ». A farmer received a grenade thrown by the gendarmes this evening in Ariège. 

This is one of the most powerful images we’ve seen, even if it is AI-generated —

Translation: DISOBEDIENCE IS THE NOBLEST EXPRESSION OF DIGNITY. Seven gendarmes, whose deep-seated attachment to their Arm and its immutable principles of loyalty cannot be doubted, have laid down their helmets at the Les Bordes-sur-Arize farm. Faced with the distress of a family of breeders whose livestock was about to be euthanized, from the depth of the peasant roots common to all French people, they felt within themselves the taste for the land reborn… …So, let us support those who have shown the way so that they know that we have understood their message of dignity and that we are not unaware of the disciplinary risks they face. If we want there to be 100, 1,000, 5,000 of them tomorrow, let us demonstrate our solidarity with them, let us express our vigilance regarding any hierarchical measure that would blame them. So that their example is not in vain! Direct link to sign your support for these 7 valiant gendarmes: mouvementpolitiquecitoyen.fr/petition

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France Brought to a Standstill by Angry Farmers

The movement is gaining momentum and is finding resonance in Brussels and Strasbourg.

HELENE de LAUZUN for EUROPEAN CONSERVATIVE

As farmers storm Brussels, discontent is growing in France, where roadblocks are multiplying. The authorities fear congestion on the roads as Christmas approaches.

Since the beginning of December, protests by farmers have been increasing in response to health measures imposed to stem the epidemic of Contagious Nodular Dermatitis. Roadblocks and demonstrations aim to prevent the slaughter of infected herds but, above all, to alert public opinion to the endless crisis affecting the primary sector in France and in Europe.

Demonstrators lay down on the road near a roundabout during a farmers’ demonstration in Le Boulou, southwestern France, on December 18, 2025. IDRISS BIGOU-GILLES / AFP

Final negotiations on the implementation of the free trade agreement with Mercosur are adding to the anger of farmers, who feel that they are constantly being sacrificed and ignored by the authorities.

In southwestern France, the situation is particularly tense. This is where the main cases of the disease have been identified and where roadblocks are most numerous. As reported in the regional press, physical blockades and waste dumping on the roads are making traffic impossible on several strategic routes. For transporters, the situation is becoming critical, as heavy goods vehicles are unable to reach their delivery points as Christmas approaches. The routes between France and Spain, which see heavy food traffic at this time of year, are particularly affected.

The farmers’ protest, which goes far beyond a one-off reaction to the culls, has taken on a political dimension and enjoys significant support among the population and part of the political class, with media campaigns designed to showcase this popular support. Franck Putelat, France’s best craftsman and a chef honoured with two Michelin stars, was seen preparing and serving a meal to farmers in Carcassonne, sealing the union between French haute cuisine and the farming world, according to our colleagues at Boulevard Voltaire.

Young farmers are calling on the public for support to continue their actions and hope to achieve results: “As long as consumers don’t follow suit, we can fight as much as we want, but we won’t be able to do anything,” laments a representative of the Young Farmers’ Union interviewed by Frontières magazine on the issue of farmers’ remuneration.

A large contingent of French farmers travelled to Brussels for the day of action on December 18th, when the European Council was meeting. Others are also present in Strasbourg around the European Parliament, taking issue with MEPs accused of compromising with the Commission and its President, Ursula von der Leyen, to conclude agreements that harm farmers.

The president of the Rassemblement National (RN), Jordan Bardella, was in Strasbourg alongside the farmers to reiterate the essence of their demands: a significant improvement in their remuneration; a lowering of health and administrative standards; a commitment to preserving France’s food sovereignty.

“The entire French people are with you: all French people love their farmers!” he exclaimed in front of the demonstrators.

Former Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who is now observing the difficulties of the Lecornu government from the outside, was indignant at the methods used to put an end to the rural protests. “You don’t send in armoured vehicles against farmers who simply want to negotiate. Their anger is legitimate. Too often stigmatised, they are nevertheless part of our identity. Let’s listen to their distress: we are all connected to the land that feeds us,” he explained on the TF1 television channel.

Once a net exporter of agricultural products, France became an importer in 2025: its agricultural trade balance is expected to be negative for the first time in fifty years.

The agricultural unions are due to meet with the Prime Minister on Friday, December 19th. Until then, the blockades will continue and promise to seriously complicate family travel for French people as the Christmas holidays approach.

Source

Hélène de Lauzun is the Paris correspondent for The European Conservative. She studied at the École Normale Supérieure de Paris. She taught French literature and civilization at Harvard and received a Ph.D. in History from the Sorbonne. She is the author of Histoire de l’Autriche (Perrin, 2021).
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Published to The Liberty Beacon from EuropeReloaded.com

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