French farmers blocked traffic around Paris's famed Arc de Triomphe monument on Friday, March 1, with tractors and bales of hay, saying the protest was aimed "at saving French agriculture." French police said they had arrested 66 people at the protest.
Farmers across Europe have been protesting for weeks over what they say are excessively restrictive environmental rules, competition from cheap imports from outside the European Union and low incomes.
The farmers held up banners around the monument on the Champs-Elysées avenue. Farmer Axel Masson said about 100 of his peers had gathered at the arterial roundabout from 3 am Paris time "in a peaceful and law-abiding manner."
"The Rural Coordination takes over the Arc de Triomphe symbolically and peacefully," the farmers' union said in a statement on social media platform X, adding that it was a cry to "save" agriculture in France. It said it "wants quick action to save 45 percent of our farms which are in financial distress." Masson said the farmers laid a wreath in memory of their colleagues who had been driven to suicide by financial woes, adding: "The state has never heard us."
French farmers have continued to block roads, set fire to tires and lay siege to supermarkets, saying they need more measures after the government promised reforms.