"Farmers from across France gathered outside the ANSES (French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety) headquarters in Maisons-Alfort on Friday, blaming the agency's rules for threatening the viability of their farms and fueling the ongoing wave of agricultural unrest nationwide. Footage shows protesters hurling eggs at the compound and attempting to break through the police lines guarding the headquarters. Officers responded by dispersing tear gas, alongside a backup riot squad to deal with the demonstrators. Broken eggs also covered the windshields of police vans as protesters ran to gather more 'ammunition,' as footage shows. Jose Perez, co-chair of Lot-et-Garonne Rural Coordination, criticised the ANSES for advising authorities to 'take away the products on our farms' and benefiting from governmental funds. "It's because of them that we're losing a lot of active ingredients, which is also a serious problem. And all these standards are part of France's overzealous transposition of EU legislation. They are largely to blame for this, too," he noted. "Yet they are stuffing their faces, they have nice offices, there's no problem [...] All that money should be sent to farmers because it serves no purpose. These organisations are detrimental to French agriculture," continued Perez. The Ministry of the Interior reported around 60 coordinated actions across France on the same day. This comes after EU member states provisionally approved the signing of the trade deal with the South American bloc, securing the 15-country threshold representing 65 per cent of the EU. France, Poland, Austria, Hungary, and Ireland voted against the proposal, while Belgium abstained. Negotiated over 25 years, the deal would gradually eliminate most tariffs over 15 years, creating a free-trade area covering around 780 million people. Its final signing was postponed from December 2025 due to political divisions among EU member states. The EU-Mercosur trade agreement is now expected to be signed in Paraguay on January 12."