Farmers have been blocking highways in France for days. Although the government is reaching out to the farmers, the protests are spreading. A fatal accident occurs at a blockade post.
During the ongoing farmers’ protests in France, there was an accident with one dead and two seriously injured. At a blockade post on a national road from Toulouse towards Andorra, a car accidentally broke through a roadblock and hit and fatally injured a farmer, the public prosecutor’s office in Foix said on Tuesday morning. Her husband and a daughter were critically injured.
The car entered the national highway despite a closure and then crashed into a wall made of straw bales in the darkness, behind which demonstrators were sitting under a tent. The car crashed into a tractor-trailer and hit the victims. The public prosecutor’s office does not assume intent. The driver was sober. French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal expressed their condolences for the victims and their families.
French farmers expanded their protests after agricultural associations met with the prime minister on Monday evening. South of Lyon, the important north-south highway A7 near Albon was blocked by around 20 farmers with their tractors in both directions during the night, as the prefecture announced. The motorway from Paris towards the Canal coast was blocked near Beauvais, and farmers at Saint-Avold in Lorraine were already dismantling the toll station barriers on the motorway from Reims to Strasbourg on Tuesday evening.
Climate change is becoming a problem in the south
According to the authorities, the blockades on several highways in the Toulouse area in southern France continued on Tuesday. The motorway from Bordeaux towards Spain was interrupted in both directions in Bayonne, not far from the border. Rail traffic between Bordeaux and Toulouse continued to be hindered by protesting farmers on Tuesday, as rail operator SNCF announced.
The protest from France’s farmers revolves around excessive regulations, the income situation, energy costs and, as in Germany, the price of agricultural diesel. In southern areas, the water supply to companies is increasingly becoming a problem due to climate change.
President Macron signaled that he would approach the farmers. “To our farmers: I have called on the government to put its full effort into finding concrete solutions to the difficulties you are facing,” he said. On Tuesday evening and Wednesday, Prime Minister Attal wanted to consult with other representatives of the agricultural sector, broadcaster BFMTV reported.
The farmers, for their part, announced further actions. The A35 motorway near Strasbourg should be blocked from Wednesday afternoon. Farmers from various places wanted to set off on a rally in the direction of the Alsace metropolis on the German border. There was also talk of speed traps along the highways being covered up as a sign of protest.
Source: Stern
