French farmers have spilled manure and attempted to surround French president Emmanuel Macron at an agricultural fair in Paris today (Saturday, February 24).
Protestors have caused chaotic scenes at the country’s largest agricultural show Salon de l’Agriculture which attracts thousands of visitors and exhibitors each year.
Video footage widely shared on social media shows French police attempting to prevent protesting farmers, who had planned to protest at the fair, from entering the building.
The protesters forced their way into the buildings, causing chaos at the fair and clashing with police. Video footage also shows a protester unloading manure in front of a trade stand.
In a statement, the organisers of the agricultural fair expressed their “sadness” seeing the “difficulties of the agricultural world continue” and the event “disrupted in its functioning”.
French farmer representative body, Jeunes Agriculteurs said in a post on X that there has been an “ambient tension” since the opening of the fair this morning.
A discussion with the French president and spokespersons from agricultural unions was thus organised to “relay the anger on the ground”, Jeunes Agriculteurs said on X.
President Macron met with trade union organisations and committed to recognise French agriculture and food as a “major general interest of the French nation”, he said on X.
Ahead of the fair, French farmers converged in the capital to highlight the “continued difficulties” facing agriculture in France and their concerns that farming is “disappearing”.
Earlier this week the French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal unveiled a new bill that he said would recognise “in black and white our objective of agricultural and food sovereignty”.
But one of the largest farming unions in France, FNSEA, intended to use the agricultural fair as a showcase to highlight “agricultural values” and show the “essential link between agriculture and food”.