UPDATE - French farmers vow to expand protests over tax hikes, EU rules

UPDATES WITH COMMENTS FROM FRENCH GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON, SITUATION IN BELGIUM

By Nur Asena Erturk

Farmers in France plan to broaden ongoing protests launched against tax hikes and the rising pressure of EU regulations, the country's main agricultural trade union announced Wednesday.

"By Friday, there will be actions in 85 departments, continuously or sporadically. Everybody in all the departments will go out eventually," the president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, told broadcaster France 2.

"We do not want to bother the French population, we would rather be in our farms but we do not have a choice," Rousseau added.

Farmers are demanding better wages, simplified administration, no new bans on pesticides, an end to tractor fuel price hikes, and better compensation after disasters, according to broadcaster France 24.

Protests began last week as demonstrators blocked highways in southwestern France.

An accident on Tuesday has raised tensions at the protests in the southern town of Ariege, near the Spanish border, broadcaster BFMTV reported.

A vehicle hit and killed a 35-year-old protesting farmer, Alexandra, and her 12-year-old daughter, while her husband was injured.

Rousseau also announced he would unveil a list of around 40 measures to end the crisis.

He also urged Prime Minister Gabriel Attal to come and meet with the farmers.

Following the ministers’ council meeting, Government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot told a news conference: “This agricultural nation calls for us. This call, their call, we heard and we will continue to answer it.”

She added that the prime minister was committed to meeting the farmers in the field soon.

Other European countries, including Germany and Romania, were jolted by farmers' protests in recent weeks.

Far-right politician Marion Marechal went to Brussels to meet the farmers who are preparing protests for next week, according to BMTV.

The candidate for EU parliament elections blamed French President Emmanuel Macron's Cabinets for this situation of ire and described the Green Deal as "a tsunami of regulations that will collapse on French agriculture for ecological excuses."

Farmers in Belgium are planning a protest each day in a different province next week, according to Belgian media outlets.

Marianne Streel, the president of the Wallonian Agricultural Federation (FWA), the main agricultural trade union in the French-speaking Walloon region, said that there is "a group that wants to harden the tone and is ready to block Wallonia for several days," broadcaster RTBF reported.