While protesting French farmers tucked into BBQ sausages in front of their tractors, Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigette, attended a lavish gala dinner with Swedish royalty.
King Carl Gustaf, Queen Silvia and the rest of the family spared no expense at the banquet with the French President and first lady at Stockholm Palace on Tuesday night.
But 1,000 miles away in Paris, angry demonstrators continued to choke off major motorways around the city in an intensifying standoff with the Government over working conditions, incomes, red tape, and environmental policies.
The farmers say the policies undermine their ability to compete with other countries.
For more than a week, militant farmers have descended on French motorways in their tractors to block roads in a bid to “starve Paris” unless the Government act.
The protests follow similar action in other European countries, including Germany and Poland, ahead of European Parliament elections in June in which the far right, for whom farmers represent a growing constituency, is seen making gains.
Earlier this week, French farmers targeted Aldi and Lidl in protest of their “unfairly” low prices, sparking fears thousands of pounds worth of fresh produce may have to be dumped over delays caused by the road blockades.
Farmers from the Confederation paysanne union blocked the entrance to an Aldi distribution hub in Cavaillon, south-eastern France, hours after lighting fire to rubbish at a Lidl in Beaucaire in the Gard.
An unnamed spokesman told BFM TV: “We want to blockade the logistics platforms to demand a better sharing of added value, as supermarkets made big profits in the last half of the year, and we never saw any of it. We’re asking them to increase our prices without passing them on to the consumer, to reduce their margins in fact. We will stay as long as necessary.”
It comes after around 20 farmers on Monday dumped rubbish in front of a Lidl logistics hub before setting it alight and causing the front gate to collapse.
While British growers sympathise with European farmers, they said that the protests are “unquestionably” inflicting painstaking delays on lorries delivering fresh produce to the UK, which could lead to supply issues at UK supermarkets.
Jimmy Russo, director of Valley Grown Salads, said the UK is “definitely” being impacted by the strikes. He told MailOnline: “We’re struggling at the moment with lorries not coming in, delayed.
“Don’t forget this is fresh produce, and as soon as you start delaying the product then the quality of the product goes in decline.
“So yeah, it will affect us unquestionably. I don’t think there’s a lorry that hasn’t been delayed recently.
“The strike or the blockade, whatever you want to call it, means product is not coming here on day four, it’s getting here sometimes on day six.”
Demonstrators were allowed to spend Tuesday night under motorway bridges, where they set fire to bales of hay and any foreign produce they could get their hands on, while some were pictured sleeping in their tractors.
As night fell and the cold set in, the farmers kept warm around their makeshift bonfires and barbecues, and cooked meat while sipping on boxed wine and beer.
NFU President Minette Batters said: “British farmers have the greatest sympathy for our farming colleagues across Europe who are facing huge challenges and uncertainty.
“Here in the UK, we share their concern. Two years of unsustainably high production costs are putting farming families under mounting pressure. At the same time, recent flooding has devastated farmland meaning that thousands of pounds have simply been washed away as crops are destroyed.
“But in Britain we also have incredibly high public support for our farmers and growers, and we’ve shown that when the public and farming sector come together, we can bring about important change.”
The British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents all of the major supermarkets, said the UK is not “currently” anticipating significant impact from the protests, but assured that retailers are “adept at managing supply chain challenges and will ensure if there is any impact, that it is kept to a minimum”.
