French farmers to hit streets as EU-Mercosur trade deal nears finish line

PARIS — French farmers are taking to the streets again.
Two of the country’s main farming unions say they are planning a new wave of protests next month to voice their opposition to the trade deal being negotiated between the European Union and South American countries of the Mercosur bloc.
The announcement comes as the two sides are aiming to finalize the pact by the end of the year, potentially on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro on Nov. 18 and 19. French farmers oppose the agreement as they fear they’d lose business if Europe opened its market to cheaper — and arguably lower-quality — beef and agriculture products.
“We call on our network to restart protests from Nov. 15, 2024,” the presidents of FNSEA and Jeunes Agriculteurs, Arnaud Rousseau and Pierrick Horel, told French daily Ouest-France.
Rousseau said at a news conference on Tuesday that the protests could also reach Brussels.  
French and European farmers came out in force earlier this year to voice their displeasure with several issues, including the European Green Deal, prompting both Brussels and the French government to backtrack on green rules.
France has long been the most prominent opponent of the Mercosur deal, but with Paris’ influence in Brussels not what it once was, the European Commission and supporters of the deal led by Germany see a unique opportunity to finally push over the finish line a trade agreement that has been in the making for a quarter of a century.
Publicly, the French government still opposes the agreement. French Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard reiterated her country’s stance at a meeting with her European counterparts on Tuesday, while Trade Minister Sophie Primas told French daily l’Opinion that approving the deal without France’s backing would “open a breach in the French people’s confidence in Europe.” 
However, French officials are privately coming to terms with the fact that Paris won’t be able to veto it. POLITICO reported earlier this month that the European Commission is working on a compensation fund to appease farmers and overcome French resistance to the deal.
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.