At the opening of the Paris agricultural fair on Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron was greeted with catcalls and boos from angry farmers who accuse him of not doing enough to support them.
Macron was due to visit the event, which attracts crowds of visitors every year. But before the official opening, several dozen protesters broke through security barriers and entered the site of the president’s arrival.
Farmers have been protesting for months across France, including Paris, to demand better living conditions, simpler regulations and better protection against foreign competition they consider unfair.
Police in riot gear were deployed at the Paris Agricultural Fair to prevent them from getting close to Macron, who had planned a meeting with the heads of France’s main farmers’ unions.
Meanwhile, protesters chanted slogans calling on Macron to “resign” and blew whistles to show their anger.
“We will not be able to respond to the agricultural crisis in a few hours,” Macron said. “It took months, years of work for those who came here to present their livestock, their work… This fair must go well and calmly”.
Three weeks ago, farmers removed roadblocks around Paris and other parts of the country after the government offered more than 400 million euros ($433 million) in aid and tax breaks.
“Anger can be expressed,” Macron said, warning against any “violence”.
The French president decided to meet the groups of protesters in a separate room. He promised that “minimum prices” will be established for each product to “guarantee farmers’ income”. He also said that an emergency plan to financially relieve the most struggling farms will begin to be implemented on Monday.
Macron said a meeting would be held at the Elysée presidential palace in March to build “a plan for the future of agriculture” with farmers’ unions and other key players in the food industry.
A farmer asked the president to say “in front of the cameras you will give oxygen to the farmers… Do it and I guarantee you will calm everyone down”.
Macron responded: “You have complaints. You don’t have a completely deaf government… It’s not true that nothing has been done.”
The fair subsequently officially opened, but the opening was delayed for several hours due to the protest.
Macron then mingled with the farmers presenting their livestock and products, starting with Normandy cows and Camembert cheese, while loud booing from the protesters could still be heard sporadically.
The move comes as farmers across Europe protest against EU agricultural policies, bureaucracy and general business conditions.
Farmers complain that the 27-nation bloc’s environmental policies, such as the Green Deal, which calls for limits on chemical use and greenhouse gas emissions, limit their business and make their products more expensive than imports from countries non-EU.
On Friday, farmers with their tractors staged a demonstration in the streets of Paris ahead of the Agricultural Fair.
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Jeffrey Schaeffer contributed to this report.