French Farmers Plan Blockade of Paris
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PARIS — A French farmers’ revolt against drastic EC farm reforms grew in intensity Monday ahead of a historic parliamentary Congress to revise the constitution making way for a treaty of European union.
Defying government warnings, leaders of the radical Rural Coordination plotted a military-style operation to block access roads to Paris overnight, hours before both houses of Parliament are to convene today in a rare joint session in the stately splendor of King Louis XIV’s Versailles Palace.
Riot police and paramilitary gendarmes were deployed in force to keep roads open to Versailles, southwest of Paris. The Sun King’s ornate palace will be closed to tourists for the day.
Ignoring mainstream farmers’ unions that have warned against alienating public opinion by paralyzing Paris, Rural Coordination leaders met with sector maps, computers and walkie-talkies at the village of Ecuble, near Chartres, to plan their 2,500-tractor operation to seal off the capital.
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