The sausages were grilling on the brazier and the farmers had started their apéritif, at mid-day on Thursday, January 25, when Benoît Masure's phone vibrated. The head of the FNSEA farmers' union chapter in Etampes, in the Paris region, looked at the message, and stopped. "I've got to tell the guys right away," he said, reaching for the microphone: "The Paris blockade has been decided for tomorrow."

While Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is due to present measures to quell farmers' anger on Friday, in southwest France, the local branches of two major unions are promising to block highways around the capital starting at 2 pm. The message is clear: They want to put pressure on the government and ensure that their demands are met. "We're going to count on all of you, on your mobilization," Masure told the crowd. Applause erupted. "Yeah!" shouted some. "It's war!" said one.

Since the start of farmers' protests on January 18 in the south of France, anger has spread across the country, right up to the gates of Paris. Many farmers from the region have put their tractors on the main roads leading to the capital. Slowly but surely, they're getting closer. But Clément Torpier, president of the Paris region branch of the Jeunes Agriculteurs union, told BFM-TV they "have no intention of entering Paris."

On Thursday morning, Masure and around a hundred farmers had gathered at a traffic circle just outside Etampes. Gendarmes were stationed all around, keeping an eye on the area. Around twenty tractors were parked in a circle around the roundabout. A few bales of straw burned in the middle. It looked like a cowboy camp in the Wild West.

But what stood out was the reference to the preferred mode of action of the Yellow Vest protesters during the winter of 2018-2019. "It has nothing to do with them," argued Masure. "It's a visible place, on a major road. We're used to coming here." Elsewhere in France, however, the spirit of the Yellow Vests is taking on an agricultural green. On Thursday morning, on the A50 highway in southern France, several figureheads from the 2018 protests were hoping to resume the movement. Some aren't farmers, but they took part in the procession nonetheless. "We have never given up," said one of them, Julien.

'Our last cartridge'

The movement is spreading everywhere. Although the decision was not unanimously endorsed by its members, the left-leaning Confédération Paysanne farmers' union stepped up its presence at blockade points across the country. Its national committee, which disagrees with the choices of the majority FNSEA union, nonetheless affirmed its "full solidarity" with the movement.

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