France’s protesting farmers encircle Paris with tractor barricades, vowing a ‘siege’ over grievances

Protesting farmers encircled Paris with traffic-snarling barricades Monday, using hundreds of lumbering tractors and mounds of hay bales to block highways leading to France’s capital to pressure the government over the future of their industry, which has been shaken by repercussions of the Ukraine war.

The blockading of major thoroughfares around Paris — host of the Summer Olympics in six months — and protests elsewhere in France promised another difficult week for new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, less than a month into the job.

Protesters said Attal’s attempts last week at pro-agriculture measures fell short of their demands that producing food should be more lucrative, easier and fairer.

Farmers responded with the deployment Monday of convoys of tractors, trailers and even rumbling harvesters in what they described as a “siege” of Paris to gain more concessions. Some protesters came with reserves of food and water and tents to stay at