French farmers edge closer to Paris as protests ratchet up pressure on President Macron

PARIS

Protests by French farmers are snowballing and creeping closer to Paris, ratcheting up pressure for government measures to protect the influential agricultural sector from foreign competition, red tape, rising costs and poverty-levels of pay. Traffic-snarling drive-slows, barricades of straw bales, stinky dumps of agricultural waste and other expressions of anger have rapidly blown up to become the first major crisis for newly appointed Prime Minister Gabriel Attal. President Emmanuel Macron’s opponents are seizing on the farmers’ demonstrations to bash his government’s record ahead of European elections in June. Roads hit by drive-slows included a highway west of the French capital on Thursday morning.