French Farmers Burst into Paris with Hundreds of Tractors to Protest Against the EU’s Mercosur Agreement that Threatens National Agriculture and Favors Globalist Interests

Thousands of French farmers have taken to the streets of Paris this January 8, 2026, blocking main arteries and emblematic monuments with hundreds of tractors.

This protest, organized mainly by the Coordination Rurale union and supported by other agricultural groups, arises in rejection of the imminent Mercosur trade agreement, which is perceived as a betrayal of national interests by opening the doors to cheap imports of meat, poultry, and soy from South American countries like Brazil and Argentina.

The demonstrators argue that this pact will undermine local prices, expose farmers to unfair competition due to laxer environmental standards in Mercosur, and prioritize industrial sectors such as automotive and aerospace to the detriment of rural agriculture, which already suffers from strict EU regulations.

The mobilization began to escalate at the beginning of January, with blockades on highways and borders, including the one with Spain.

Despite an express governmental prohibition that banned tractor convoys and gatherings, the farmers defied the orders, entering Paris and reaching iconic sites such as the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Élysées, the Eiffel Tower, and the National Assembly.

In front of the latter, they gathered under strict police surveillance, displaying banners with messages like «Mercosur, certain death» and hanging mannequins from tractors to symbolize the devastating impact on their livelihoods.

The French government, led by Macron –a defender of Europeanist agendas that many see as aligned with globalist elites–, has tried to calm the waters by promising to block the agreement in the European Council, but the farmers distrust it, citing previous unfulfilled promises.

🇫🇷🇪🇺 Thousands of French farmers, led by the Rural Coordination (CR), have launched a massive tractor march toward Paris to denounce what they see as the betrayal represented by the EU–Mercosur agreement. pic.twitter.com/trGokjahoy

— cvetko35 (@cvetko35) January 7, 2026

This crisis is aggravated by other factors, such as the outbreak of lumpy skin disease in cattle, detected in June 2025, which has led to the mandatory slaughter of more than 3,000 cows in 110 outbreaks, which the farmers denounce as excessive protocols imposed by Brussels.

This is not the first protest, in December 2025, thousands marched in Brussels, blocking traffic with sheep and generating tensions with the police.

Now, in Paris, the blockade has caused significant urban disruptions, with the government qualifying the action as «illegal» and deploying forces to avoid escalations, although so far no major clashes are reported.

This uprising totally demonstrates the failure of Macron’s progressive policies, which have weakened French sovereignty by subjecting it to EU dictates. The farmers, pillars of national identity and the rural economy, demand not only the veto of Mercosur –which could be signed next week–, but a rethinking of «green» and globalist agendas that destroy local jobs in favor of imports from nations with inferior standards.

France, together with allies like Ireland and Poland, seeks a blocking minority in the EU, but time is pressing. This protest is a call to patriotic resistance against forces that prioritize deregulated free trade over national prosperity.

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