Climate activists hurl soup at Mona Lisa as farmers aim to put Paris ‘under siege’ in tractor protest
- Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said 15,000 police officers are being deployed, as angry farmers threatened to head towards the French capital
- Hours earlier, climate activists advocating for a sustainable food system hurled soup at the glass protecting the Mona Lisa in the Louvre
France’s interior ministry on Sunday ordered a large deployment of security forces around Paris as angry farmers threatened to head toward the capital, hours after climate activists hurled soup at the glass protecting the Mona Lisa painting at the Louvre Museum.
French farmers are putting pressure on the government to respond to their demands for better pay for their produce, less red tape and protection against cheap imports.
Speaking after an emergency meeting on Sunday evening, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said 15,000 police officers are being deployed, mostly in the Paris region.
Darmanin said he ordered security forces to “prevent any blockade” of Rungis International Market – which supplies the capital and surrounding region with much of its fresh food – and the Paris airports as well as to ban any convoy of farmers from entering the capital and any other big city. He said helicopters will monitor convoys of tractors.
Darmanin said possibly all eight motorways heading to Paris will be blocked on Monday from midday and urged car and truck drivers to “anticipate” blockades. “Difficulties will obviously be very important,” he said.
Farmers of the Rural Coordination union in the Lot-et-Garonne region, where the protests originated, said they plan to use their tractors on Monday to head towards the Rungis International Market.
France’s two biggest farmers’ unions said in a statement that their members based in areas surrounding the Paris region would seek to block all major roads to the capital, with the aim of putting the city “under siege”, starting on Monday afternoon.
