Why French Farmers Protested, Disrupting Tour de France Cycling

French farmers, protesting against the government’s decision to cut aid, blocked and interrupted the 16th Stage of the 2018 Tour de France on July 24. The farmers gathered with their sheep and blocked the road with hay, around 30 km into the day’s race from Carcassonne.

While the cycling race was halted for about 15 minutes, the police in their hurry to disperse the protesters, used tear gas at them, which accidentally hit the race peloton as well, burning the eyes of many riders including stars Chris Froome and leader Geraint Thomas of Team Sky.

The fact that the riders got affected by tear gas seems to have stung the French authorities, who are worried that this would leave a huge dent in the country’s reputation. Tour de France is France’s most prestigious sporting event with a global following. This would also bring worldwide attention to the plight of the farmers in the Midi-Pyrenees and Piege region (Occitanie region) of France, another pertinent reason to worry for the French government busy celebrating the triumph of the national football team at the FIFA World Cup.

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This protest is not the first from the farmers in the region, with Toulouse as its central town, and certainly won’t be the last. As many put it, they are fighting a “battle for survival”.

The farmers, who came with around 200 sheep, tractors and bales of hay to block the road, were also holding signs which read ’For the Piege region to live’ (translation).

A spokesman for the group was quoted by fginsignt.com saying that the protest was against the government’s apathy to the farming communities in the region.

“We wanted to stop the Tour de France to get some answers. We’d requested answers from the Ministry of Agriculture about our problems of being in less-favoured rural areas. It’s been six months and we still haven’t heard back from the Ministry,” he said. “We had about 200 sheep, tractors and hay bales to block the road but unfortunately the police fired tear gas at us and the sheep.”

The problems afflicting French farmers from the region was highlighted back in February when many came out to blockade the highway going into Toulouse.

Subsistence Subsidies

The protest in Toulouse and the one blocking Tour de France are all part of the ongoing fight of the French farmers against the government's plans to cut the number of agricultural areas that are eligible for European Union subsidies.

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The farming areas classified as "less favoured" for agriculture are entitled for the funding but the government has proposed to prune the list of areas by 100. If the proposal gets implemented, the region will be among the most affected. It could deprive the farmers as much as €7,000 in subsides a year, said the protesters.

"Anger increases when people don't have a future," a cereal grower was quoted in a report by Le Pont at the time. During the protests in Toulouse, Sophie Maniago from the FDSEA farmers union was quoted by thelocal.fr saying that the farmers would not give up till the government heeds to a fair solution to the issue.

"At the moment, we are very motivated to no give an inch," said Maniago. "It is the death of the farms. We would have losses between €8,000 and €10,000 euros. These are territories which are shutting down, which are going to become deserted, villages that are going to die."

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Many farmers had predicted at the time that the fight would go on and could turn violent as well. "This is more like civil war than a protest," said Maniago at the time.

The report in thelocal.fr also presented the views of FNSEA, France's leading farmer's union. The FNSEA described the government’s plan to revise France's "less favoured" agricultural zones as "unjust" and said the aid from the European Union was "essential to support agricultural activity in these areas of low potential".

The unions in France are united in the cause. They want a "indisputable and fair" list from the government taking into account the reality of the “handicaps of these fragile territories”.

That was in February. The problem has been simmering the past one year. It just so happens that it came out into the open once again after the farmers decided to block the Tour de France to mark their protest.