The French trade union Agricultural Coordination is carrying out an action around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris this morning blocking off the upper part of the Champs-Élysées with straw bales and tractors, an AFP reporter found.

Axel Masson, a farmer in the Loire-et-Cher region in central France, told AFP that around a hundred farmers had gathered since 05:00 (Greece time) this morning “calmly and respectfully”.

Shortly after 08:00 (Greece time), police vehicles had taken up positions under the Arc de Triomphe, while traffic at the top of the famous Champs-Élysées avenue was still blocked.

Around 50 trade unionists remained in the area, surrounded by police officers. Around ten tractors of the Agricultural Coordination, with a French flag, were parked near the monument, according to the AFP reporter.

The union had announced via Platform X that it was mobilizing “to save our French agriculture” ahead of the final weekend of the Agricultural Fair being organized in the capital. “Agrarian Coordination is symbolically and peacefully occupying Etoile,” writes the union in X citing the name of the square where the Arc de Triomphe is located.

The union is calling for “quick action to save the 45% of our farms that are in financial distress”.

“We went up this morning to lay a wreath at the Arc de Triomphe to pay tribute to all the farmers who kill themselves,” explained Masson.

“The State still does not listen to us. At 6 a.m. we were going to leave in peace. We were going to collect them and leave the place clean,” but the police prevented them from leaving, according to him.