PM Attal Outlines Measures To Resolve Tensions With Farmers

Wires carrying comments from French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal outlining measures to assuage anger from farmers, stating: "We have received your message loud and clear," after two weeks of rural protests over food prices and fuel taxes.

• Per Reuters, Attal said the government has decided to put agriculture above "anything else," and pledged to open a new chapter for farming in France and urging, "all French citizens, if they can, buy French products."
• Hinting at policy shift, Attal said, "access to water to be made easier for farmers," the French President, "will ask easing of EU rules on fallow land," and "speed up payment of subsidies of agricultural tractor fuel."
• On international trade, Attal said: "France will stay opposed to signing of Mercosur trade deal," a major concern for French farmers and long opposed by President Emmanuel Macron.
• Attal's comments come as the protests threaten to escalate into a blockade of Paris. Bloomberg reports: "Some unions have urged their members to cut off the main routes into Paris on Friday afternoon."