Mercosur: FNSEA calls for demonstrations on January 20 in Strasbourg if the treaty is signed by the EU

A way of putting pressure on member countries. The National Federation of Farmers’ Unions (FNSEA), like its ally Young Farmers, called this Thursday for demonstrations on January 20 in Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin), seat of the European Parliament, if the free trade treaty between the European Union and Mercosur countries was signed this weekend.

The FNSEA wants to “call out to MEPs who will still have the possibility of seizing the European Court of Justice to reject this Mercosur agreement” and claims to have already obtained the support of other European farmers, notably the Italians.

The first agricultural union also says it expects a “very strong signal” from the Prime Minister this Friday to angry farmers, calling for “emergency measures” even before the budget vote, during a press conference Thursday in Paris.

“The wait is high”

“Expectations are high in the countryside. Farmers expect action” as the Prime Minister “committed to do”, underlined Hervé Lapie, secretary general of the FNSEA.

Refusing to arbitrate between the emergencies of an agricultural France which is becoming depopulated and impoverished, the union cited among its priorities measures for viticulture, support for cereal growers “who today sell below their production costs”, a “repeal of the nitrate directive”, which sets in particular the schedules for spreading fertilizers and other practices, and the publication of decrees of the agricultural laws passed in 2025.

The president of the union Arnaud Rousseau demanded “measures” and “a precise timetable” for implementing these acts “before the Agricultural Show”, scheduled for the end of February.

The FNSEA, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, wants to continue to “bring an ambition for agriculture to public authorities, whatever the political color of the different governments” and is already preparing proposals for agriculture for future presidential candidates.

Called to react to the very visible mobilization in the streets of Paris of the Rural Coordination, a competing union defending a hard line, Arnaud Rousseau estimated that the real subject was “efficiency” and “substantive work” with parliamentarians, the government and European authorities.

“We are active” on all fronts while others come to “put three tractors in front of a monument to cause a conversation,” he said, referring to the CR tractors that reached the foot of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe on Thursday.