Why many road signs show the wrong name for towns in Dordogne
Hundreds were swapped overnight and mark the start of a national campaign
Unions mixed up the commune signs of many villages in Dordogne on Thursday night
JA 24
Drivers in the Dordogne may wonder why many communes suddenly have the wrong name displayed on their entry roadside signs. The mix up is actually part of a new national protest by two farmers’ unions.
Farmers around Dordogne reportedly swapped the entry name panels of 200 communes - for example, Négrondes became La Coquille; Agonac, Brantôme; Borrèze, Montignac-Lascaux - overnight Thursday to Friday (October 10 to 11) .
The farmers say they did the same for many communes in Vaucluse, Paris and Loiret.
For the Jeunes Agriculteurs and FDSEA unions behind the action, the message is clear:
“We don’t know where we’re going. They are stringing us along, so we are doing the same to the state,” the unions said in a statement.
The new campaign follows a similar protest in 2023 in which 800 commune signs were turned upside down around the country to draw attention to what unions described as the accumulation of regulations and red tape.
That protest ultimately gave way to the massive protests of February 2024, which saw the unions bring much of the country to a standstill with hundreds of roadblocks and rolling barricades on motorways.
The movement succeeded in several of its main objectives, including an end to the tax on agricultural diesel, a limit to the ban on pesticides and the reinforcement of the EGalim rules intended to favour French produce in supermarkets.
For the time bring, the unions have no intention of recreating the levels of disruption seen in the February protests, but warn that they could go further if government inaction continues.
“Farmers in the Périgord, like all farmers in the country, are waiting for strong action. Nothing has been done since January 2024 and, to cap it all, the climate has ravaged the various harvests and livestock farming is plagued by disease.”
They go on to warn the new government that history could repeat itself.
“The tractors will be coming out again very soon. MPs and the government will have to get back to work quickly.”
