{"id":629745,"date":"2025-12-13T07:36:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T07:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/629745\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T07:36:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T07:36:21","slug":"farmers-clash-with-police-in-southwest-france-over-mass-cattle-culls-and-trade-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/629745\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmers clash with police in southwest France over mass cattle culls and trade fears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to authorities, two police officers were slightly injured when law enforcement used tear gas to disperse demonstrators occupying sections of the A64 motorway near Lescar and Carbonne.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The motorway was partially closed as dozens of tractors formed barricades and farmers said they would maintain the blockade through the weekend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The protests mark a surge of anger across France\u2019s farming sector, already under pressure from successive animal health crises and mounting economic strain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Earlier this week, veterinary teams, accompanied by police, culled 207 cows in the d\u00e9partement of Ari\u00e8ge after a new outbreak was detected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/uk.news.yahoo.com\/french-farmers-step-protests-over-121933528.html\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" data-ylk=\"slk:French farmers protest over compulsory cattle culls amid disease outbreak;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">French farmers protest over compulsory cattle culls amid disease outbreak<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard defended the measures as \u201cthe only way to save the entire livestock sector.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But the <a href=\"http:\/\/confederationpaysanne.fr\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Conf\u00e9d\u00e9ration paysanne;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Conf\u00e9d\u00e9ration paysanne<\/a> union condemned the government\u2019s approach as \u201cmore frightening than the disease itself,\u201d calling for nationwide blockades and widespread vaccination instead of mass slaughter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The crisis coincides with renewed cases of avian flu in the Landes region, a key poultry\u2011producing area. Farmers are also warning of the potential impact of the pending <a href=\"https:\/\/policy.trade.ec.europa.eu\/eu-trade-relationships-country-and-region\/countries-and-regions\/mercosur\/eu-mercosur-agreement_en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:EU\u2011Mercosur trade agreement;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">EU\u2011Mercosur trade agreement<\/a>, which they fear would open the door to unfair competition from South American producers operating under looser standards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">With possible cuts to EU farm subsidies under discussion and France facing a trade deficit for the first time in half a century, rural discontent is showing no sign of abating.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">(With newswires)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to authorities, two police officers were slightly injured when law enforcement used tear gas to disperse demonstrators&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36,2003,194925,75784],"class_list":{"0":"post-629745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-law-enforcement","12":"tag-lescar","13":"tag-tear-gas"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115711114293808945","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}