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Around 50 farmers mobilised in the Lyon region on Monday morning following a call by the Coordination Rurale union to protest soaring fuel costs linked to the crisis in the Middle East.
After staging a roadblock with around 20 tractors near a loading point at the TotalEnergies refinery in Feyzin, demonstrators headed along the A7 motorway towards the Rhône prefecture under police escort.
By around 10 a.m., the convoy had reached La Mulatière and was moving towards Lyon’s Confluence district, where significant traffic disruptions were reported.
The protest went ahead despite a prefectural order issued on Sunday banning any procession, march or demonstration in the Feyzin and Édouard-Herriot port area on Monday.
Authorities cited industrial safety concerns linked to the storage and transport of flammable and hazardous materials near what the prefecture described as “major infrastructures in the hydrocarbon distribution chain”.
“Production is more expensive than ever, and prices are not keeping pace”.
The Coordination Rurale (CR), which organised the mobilisation, is demanding stronger government support in response to what it describes as “exploding production costs” and “unsustainable fuel and non-road diesel (GNR) prices”.
“Production costs are higher than ever, and prices are not keeping pace,” the union said in a statement, warning that farm incomes were under growing pressure.
“We don’t want to die with our mouths open,” said Cédric Archer, co-president of Coordination Rurale Haute-Loire.
Mégane, a farmer from Côtes-d’Arey quoted by AFP, said the price of agricultural diesel had “almost doubled” since the start of the Middle East crisis.
“We thought the government would support us more during the harvest and sowing seasons, when diesel use and tractor activity are at their peak,” she said.
On 21 April, the French government unveiled €20 million in emergency support measures for struggling farmers, including a temporary increase in the GNR rebate to 15 cents per litre throughout May.
The package also includes deferred social security and tax payments, a “flash fuel loan” for small and medium-sized farms, and the suspension of excise duties on tractor fuel in April.
Agricultural diesel already benefits from preferential taxation that costs the French state nearly €1 billion annually.
But farming unions say the measures fall far short of what is needed. The FNSEA, France’s largest farming union, is calling for fuel aid of 30 cents per litre.
“The scheme remains largely inadequate,” FNSEA president Arnaud Rousseau said last Thursday. “GNR prices have risen by between 60% and 80% for all farmers, while the government’s targeting will only benefit a minority.”