France’s protesting farmers have spooked Emmanuel Macron

The farmers of France are mobilising. Their anger will be an early test for Gabriel Attal; the countryside is unknown territory for the new prime minister, a young man raised in the affluent suburbs of Paris, like the majority of Emmanuel Macron’s government. 

The first dissent was on Friday in the south-west of France, in and around Toulouse. On the motorway linking the city to the Atlantic coast, the farmers erected a barricade with bales of hay that is still in place three days later. Their largest union, the FNSEA, has warned this is likely to be the first of many such actions. Their president, Arnaud Rousseau told the government: ‘What interests me isn’t the performance, but the answers that will be given to farmers over the next few days to long-standing demands.’ 

There was also a gentle threat to a president with a reputation for theatrically promising much and delivering practically nothing: ‘Words are no longer enough for farmers,’ said Rousseau.