France: Farmers flood Strasbourg to protest agricultural reforms

W/S Tractors driving past protesters, Strasbourg
W/S Tractors
W/S Tractors
W/S Protesters marching
W/S Protesters marching
M/S Protesters marching
M/S Beekeepers releasing smoke
M/S Beekeeper releasing smoke
M/S Teddy Bear and EU flag
W/S Protesters marching
C/U Bee
M/S Sign reading 'STOP CETA'
M/S Protesters marching
M/S Protesters marching
W/S Giant pig and protesters
M/S Protesters marching holding signs
M/S Beekeepers releasing smoke
M/S Protesters
C/U Smoke being released
M/S Protesters holding signs
M/S Banner reading 'Serve up a better future for farming'
W/S Protesters
W/S Girl speaking
W/S Protesters sitting down
W/S Protesters
W/S Flags
M/S Protesters holding sign behind banner
W/S Protesters
SOT, Manuel Bompard, Member of European Parliament for 'La France Insoumise' (French): "You are mobilising for the general interest. You are mobilising to ensure that you can live with a decent job when you're a farmer, that you can defend an agricultural model that is compatible with the ecological and environmental emergency, an agricultural world that is compatible with citizens' health, an agricultural model that takes animal welfare into account. All these big questions are not just questions from farmers but from society as a whole."
C/U Protester clapping *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Nicolas Girod, Federal Confederation spokesperson and farmer (French): "In France, it is more than one farmer per day who kills himself. It is absolutely unbearable and unacceptable."
M/S Protesters *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Nicolas Girod, Federal Confederation spokesperson and farmer (French): "Today must be the first stone of a mobilisation that will have to be laid, maintained, amplified and multiplied so that tomorrow the CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] really serves the interests of the European people instead of the private economic interests of agribusiness."
M/S Protesters clapping
W/S Protesters
SCRIPT
Hundreds of protesters in Strasbourg flooded France's biggest city of the Grand Est region at the wheels of their tractors and marching in huge numbers on Tuesday, in an ongoing protest against free trade deals and agricultural reforms.
Farmers can be seen driving tractors, carrying banners and holding signs, alongside beekeepers releasing smoke as they marched.
The demonstrators were angry about free trade deals with South America's Mercosur, as well as CETA, Canada's trade deal with the EU, which they consider would be unfair competition. They also protested the government proposal to implement pesticide-free zones around cities.
"Today must be the first stone of a mobilisation that will have to be held, maintained, amplified and multiplied so that tomorrow the CAP really serves the interests of the European people instead of the private economic interests of agribusiness", said the Federal Confederation spokesperson and farmer, Nicolas Girod.
Farmers from other European countries such as Germany and the Netherlands have been taking part in similar protests in recent days.