While a French diplomat who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter called the compensation fund an “interesting option,” Primas said France will not “accept money to destroy the agricultural sector.”
Rousseau told reporters on Tuesday that both progress on the deal and revelations about the compensation fund — which he previously likened to a “consolation prize” in an interview with POLITICO —“pushed us” to act.
The agricultural sector at large believes the government is not delivering on all its promises from the previous round of demonstrations, nor is it doing enough to stop the trade deal with the Mercosur bloc, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia.
“The situation is worse than one year ago … it is going off in all directions,” farmer Laurence Marandola, a spokesperson of left-wing farmers’ union Conféderation Paysanne, said. The Conféderation , which also opposes the trade deal, is not joining the Nov. 15 protests for now.
But Marandola said that President Emmanuel Macron and the government were opposing the deal publicly “while letting negotiations proceed.”
Judith Chetrit contributed to this report from Paris, and Paula Andrés from Luxembourg.
