French farmers began moving in Paris on Monday, threatening to choke major highways and block the capital as they demand better working conditions.
Nationwide protests have flared for days in the European Union's largest agricultural-producing country, with farmers angry over insufficient income, red tape and environmental policies they say are undermining their ability to compete with less stringent neighbors.
Across France, farmers have used tractors and trucks to block roads and hold up traffic.
They plan to step up their pressure campaign by establishing eight bottlenecks along the main arteries into Paris on Monday afternoon.
In response, the government ordered the deployment of 15,000 police and paramilitary gendarmes.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told the armed forces to exercise moderation, but also warned farmers not to interfere in strategic places.
“We have no intention of allowing government buildings, tax collection buildings or supermarkets to be damaged or trucks carrying foreign products to be stopped. That is obviously unacceptable,” he said.
Darmanin said protests should not affect operations at Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports in Paris, or at the international wholesale food market in Rungis south of Paris, where armored police vehicles were deployed on Monday.
Police and gendarmes are also under orders to prevent any raid in Paris itself, Darmanin said.
The government is trying to prevent farmers' discontent from spreading ahead of June's European Parliament elections, seen as a key test for President Emmanuel Macron's government.
During a visit to a farm on Sunday, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal again tried to allay farmers' concerns after a series of concessions announced on Friday failed to defuse the crisis.
“I want us to clarify things and see what additional measures we can take” to address farmers' complaints that they face unfair competition, he said.
'Pressure on the government'
Arnaud Rousseau, leader of one of the main farmers' unions, FNSEA, said he expected to meet Attal later Monday.
“Our goal is not to irritate the French or make their lives difficult, but to put pressure on the government,” he told the RTL broadcaster.
Some roadblocks had been lifted over the weekend, but farmers riding tractors returned early on Monday and gathered at staging areas to begin their drive to the capital.
On Sunday, two activists threw soup at the glass protecting the Mona Lisa painting in the Louvre to draw attention to the agricultural sector.
“What's more important? Art or the right to healthy and sustainable food,” the activists asked.
“Your agricultural system is sick. Our farmers are dying at work,” they said.
FNSEA and the Jeunes Agricultueurs (Young Farmers) plan to begin their siege of Paris around 2pm (1300 GMT) on Monday.
Adding to the chaos on French roads, taxi drivers organized their own protest movement on Monday against what they say is insufficient reimbursement for the transport of patients by French health services.
Their 'go-slow' protests began choking highways across the country, including the A13 leading to Paris.
Mobilize Belgian farmers
In neighboring Belgium, farmers stepped up their own campaign and blocked a major highway on Sunday as they too demanded better conditions.
Dozens of tractors snaked through an intersection, stopping traffic on the E42 highway, just north of Namur, in the south of the country.
Farmers protesting outside a Belgian football stadium also delayed the match between Racing Genk and Sint-Truiden by 30 minutes.
The grievances of Belgian farmers are similar to those of their French colleagues.
In recent weeks, similar farmers' protests have also mushroomed in Germany, Poland, Romania and the Netherlands.
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