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It was in freezing cold that the last groups of mobilized farmers woke up on December 24 on the highway. They are still demonstrating against government management of lumpy skin disease. An impromptu Christmas meal took place at the Carbonne dam, south of Toulouse.
This text corresponds to part of the transcription of the report above. Click on the video to watch it in full.
A Christmas mass on the highway, under a marquee too small to contain the hundreds of people who came to support the agricultural world. A great first organized by farmers, mobilized at the A64 dam for almost two weeks. “It really motivates us in relation to the cause that we are defending and it honestly energizes us. This is a historic moment“, smiles Joël Tournier, breeder and member of the “Ultras de l’A64”. “They are human beings, suffering human beings and the church must be there in times of joy as well as in more difficult times. This is our place“, assures Father Jean-Marie Hary, priest of Carbonne (Haute-Garonne).
Sometimes coming from far away, residents who did not necessarily have a link with the agricultural world also wanted to be present. “It’s stronger than a traditional mass, because there is a cause, a real cause“, says a participant. “It’s very surprising. It makes me smile. I would almost like to tell you that I have tears in my eyes because it warms my heart to see so many people supporting these people.“, says another.
Outside, a real New Year’s Eve meal is prepared with hundreds of oysters and poultry. Food coming only from donations from individuals to comfort breeders, like Guillaume Portet, breeder in Montesquieu-Volvestre (Haute-Garonne), who fears every day of seeing his livestock affected by the disease: “It touches me a little. A lot, even. Because we have work at home, but we have to come here. We have been vaccinated, that is to be expected. Maybe tomorrow we’ll be in the hot seat. We only think about that. I didn’t think I’d be here tonight, but I’ve been here for twelve days.“
Behind this distress, it is also the pride of a profession that the leader of the movement, Jérome Bayle, wants to remind the government: “From their Parisian offices, let them tell themselves that we are not going to lose this pride. We’re not going to lose it, we’re going to keep it and we’re going to multiply it because we’re not going to die. Even if they don’t want to accompany us, we won’t die.“Farmers will continue to celebrate Christmas all day on this highway which they currently have no intention of leaving.
