French Farmers Block Roads Around Paris in Growing Standoff

Irate farmers deployed tractors to block the main roads in and out of Paris on Monday, in an intensifying standoff that has left the capital girding for disruptions and has become the first major test for France’s newly appointed prime minister, Gabriel Attal.

Last week Mr. Attal rushed to farming regions in the south of France and offered a series of rapid concessions as he tried to head off widening demonstrations on roadways from farmers nationwide. But the steps failed to appease many of them.

Many farmers complain that imports are undercutting their livelihood, that wages are too low, and that regulation from both the government and the European Union has become suffocating.

But their concrete demands are so varied that the protests present an increasingly precarious moment for the government, one that defies easy solutions.

“I am determined to move forward,” Mr. Attal said on Sunday after visiting farmers in the Indre-et-Loire area of central France. But he also warned that “there are things that cannot change overnight.”

Hundreds of farmers have now converged on the French capital for what they termed a “siege” of undetermined length, a major escalation after a week of protests and roadblocks that have gripped the country.