As if last weekend’s endless jams of vacationers returning home were not enough, new traffic chaos is headed for Paris as hundreds of angry French farmers are doing what they do when their frustration level with the government hits a peak: They’re on the road on perhaps 1000 tractors, headed for Paris to block traffic.
This is the latest in a series of protests stemming from falling agricultural prices in France and what the farmers perceive as unfair competition from other EU countries—and the roadways are where they find it effective to protest. If you’re planning on driving in the Paris area…well, the tractors are due tomorrow.
Earlier in the summer, farmers dissatisfied with the government’s plans to save them from bankruptcy, blockaded tourist areas near Mont-Saint-Michel and Caen in Normandy; when those roadblocks were dismantled, they set up new ones around Lyon. By the end of July, they had also begun stopping trucks at the German and Spanish borders and turning around those carrying food.
For more detail on the situation, see these stories in TheLocal.fr: Normandy and Lyon blockades; border truck stoppages and tractor parade to Paris.
