Stéphane Galais and Nina Lejeune (back to camera), spokesperson and national secretary of the Confédération paysanne, before a meeting with the prime minister in Paris, December 19, 2025. GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP
The French government has made every effort to calm farmers' anger and secure a Christmas truce. The prime minister held a series of meetings with various farming unions on Friday, December 19, seeking to ease tensions. He also promised to meet with them again during the first week of January. The previous day, France, with support from Italy, succeeded in Brussels in postponing the signing of a trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur countries.
This free trade agreement, together with the handling of contagious lumpy skin disease, or contagious nodular dermatitis, which has affected cattle farms, are among the main reasons for the anger that has mobilized farmers across France for nearly 10 days. The spark for the movement came from a farm in Bordes-sur-Arize, southwestern France, where supporters of Coordination rurale and the Confédération paysanne unions tried to prevent the slaughter of a herd infected by the disease, before law enforcement cleared them from the premises.
