“It’s not enough”: truck drivers and farmers demonstrate to demand more state aid for fuel

Truck drivers demonstrated on Saturday on the A7 motorway south of Lyon, and farmers in the Marne, to denounce the rise in fuel prices and ask the State for more significant aid than that announced the day before.

Twenty-five trucks and a bus took part in a filter barrier at Chasse-sur-Rhône (Isère), leaving only one lane of traffic in the South-North direction between 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.

Their action caused “significant slowdowns” and up to 9 km of traffic jams, according to Vinci Autoroutes. Since the outbreak of war in the Middle East, “the price of fuel has continued to increase and for years, crises have been multiplying: our companies are bloodless, if nothing is done they will die,” Jean-Christophe Gautheron, regional manager of the Organization of European Road Transport Companies (OTRE), explained to AFP.

50 million released for the transport sector

On Friday evening, the government announced aid of around 50 million euros next month for the transport sector. The measure targets VSEs and SMEs (very small, small and medium-sized enterprises) which can demonstrate “major cash flow difficulties linked to the crisis”. The aid is equivalent to flat-rate aid of 20 cents per liter for the companies concerned.

“It’s a start, but it’s not enough,” believes Jean-Christophe Gautheron. “And we need rapid help, we have to prove our difficulties with an accountant,” he regrets. “We are asking for the same aid as in 2022”, when prices soared at the time of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “and price controls”, he added.

In Châlons-en-Champagne (Marne), a few dozen farmers also demonstrated Saturday afternoon in the city center at the call of Rural Coordination, against the rise in fuel prices, according to the prefecture. These increases lead to “an increase in charges and therefore our production costs”, without “the possibility of an impact on sales prices”, underlines Thibaut Limal, president of the Marne Rural Coordination. “The cereals that we produce are purchased at the world price, which is imposed on us,” he explains. According to him, this situation risks having serious consequences for the profession: “These increases will strangle us financially, that’s for sure. Some operators are already well into the red,” he warns.

Other protest actions are planned in the coming days, in Auvergne, Île-de-France and Occitanie.