Overview
- After meeting leaders of the main farming unions on Friday, the prime minister asked for a holiday pause but offered no change to the culling-and-vaccination policy.
- France, with Italy’s support, won a postponement of the EU–Mercosur trade agreement signing in Brussels, reflecting a central grievance voiced by protesters.
- Authorities are pushing mass inoculations, targeting full vaccination of 1,000 farms in the Ariège department by Dec. 31 alongside mandatory culls in infected herds.
- The Interior Ministry recorded 110 protest actions involving roughly 5,000 people on Dec. 18, and officials warned they will stop highway blockades during holiday travel.
- Officials report progress toward containing lumpy skin disease even as unions condemn herd culls and tensions with veterinarians complicate the vaccination drive.