Macron Says France Will Reject EU‑Mercosur Pact After Tractor Protests

On Thursday, January 8, 2026, President Emmanuel Macron announced on X that France would vote against signing the European Union’s trade agreement with the Mercosur countries, a day before EU member states were due to cast a decisive vote in Brussels. Macron described the pact as “an agreement from another era” and said the signing “is not the end of the story.” He credited the European Commission with “undeniable progress” and said France had secured “major commitments,” while pledging to “continue to fight for the full, concrete implementation of the commitments obtained from the European Commission and to protect our farmers.”

The decision followed dramatic scenes in the French capital as farmers, mobilized in part by the Coordination Rurale union, rolled tractors into Paris, blockading approaches to the city, rallying in front of the National Assembly and entering parts of central Paris including near the Arc de Triomphe. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the tractors had begun leaving the capital and that more protest actions were planned across the country on Friday, hoping that, “as was the case on Thursday, [there would be] no violence or major damage.”

French officials argued they had extracted concrete safeguards from the Commission that made the text fairer to agriculture but not sufficient to overcome domestic political opposition. The concessions cited by Paris include an “emergency brake” allowing restrictions on agricultural imports from Mercosur countries in the event of market destabilization, reciprocity measures on production conditions tied to pesticides and animal feed, and enhanced agricultural safeguards backed by fresh funding pledges in the EU long‑term budget.

An Élysée official told reporters the government had concluded there was “unanimous political rejection” of the agreement across French political institutions, a stance reflected in parliamentary debates in both the National Assembly and the Senate. Officials framed the decision as a response to the perceived threat to farming sectors and to mounting public pressure, noting the sensitivity of the issue ahead of municipal elections in March and the unfolding presidential succession campaign for 2027.

The EU‑Mercosur accord, two decades in the making, would create a free‑trade zone encompassing more than 700 million people if fully concluded. At the Council, approval requires a qualified majority of at least 15 of the EU’s 27 states representing 65 percent of the bloc’s population. Several member states have expressed opposition, while others including Germany and Spain backed the deal. Italy’s likely support was viewed as a decisive factor that could secure the qualified majority required for the agreement to proceed toward formal signature next week.

With Paris set to register its opposition in Brussels, the immediate question is whether the Council will approve the text despite France’s no vote. Even if it does, French officials have emphasized that securing and enforcing the contractual guarantees they won from the Commission will dominate France’s subsequent actions at EU level and in domestic politics, leaving the durability of the accord contingent on implementation as much as on signature.