More than 500 tractors and 2,000 farmers have blocked the main streets of Paris, the French capital, on Wednesday to protest against the ban on the use of neonicotinoids, an insecticide.
The National Union Federation of Farmers has indicated that the convoys came from the A13, A10, A6 and A4 highways and have moved to the vicinity of the Porte de Versailles, in the southwest of the city.
The Paris police said in a statement that at around 8:00 a.m. (local time) there was already a traffic jam on some of these roads of about 354 kilometers, an «exceptional figure at that hour». Subsequently, the caravan was distributed over 425 kilometers. The convoys moved towards the Esplanade des Invalides after crossing several avenues, according to Le Figaro.
The protests come after the government announced on January 23 that it would withdraw the authorization to use these pesticides for the cultivation of sugar beet after the Court of Justice of the European Union found the exceptions to the application of these insecticides illegal.
This type of substances, toxic to bees and banned in 2018, benefited in France from an exception for two years, which allowed their preventive application to sugar beet seeds to protect them.
However, farmers see the measure as a «hecatomb» for their sector and warn that at this rate «French agriculture will disappear». They therefore advocate the use of these insecticides until there is another solution.
Wednesday’s protest comes a day after the third day of mobilization against the pension reform, a bill with which the Government seeks to increase the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
