PARIS (AP) — France’s Interior Ministry ordered a large deployment of security forces around Paris on Sunday as angry farmers threatened to head toward the capital, hours after climate activists hurled soup at the glass containing the “Mona Lisa.” -painting in the Louvre Museum.

French farmers are putting pressure on the government to meet their demands for better compensation for their produce, less bureaucracy and protection from cheap imports.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin held a security meeting on Sunday ahead of possible road blockades around Paris, his office said in a statement.

Darmanin ordered security forces to “prevent any blockade” of the Rungis International Market and Paris airports and to ban any convoy of farmers from entering the capital, the statement said.

Farmers from the Rural Coordination union in the Lot-et-Garonne region, where the protests originated, plan to drive their tractors on Monday to the Rungis International Market, which supplies the capital and the surrounding region with much of its fresh food.

France’s two largest farmers’ unions said in a statement that their members in the Paris area would try to block all major roads into the capital from Monday afternoon, with the aim of putting the city “under siege.”

Earlier on Sunday, two climate activists threw Sunday soup at the glass protecting the “Mona Lisa” and shouted slogans advocating for a sustainable food system.

In a video posted on social media, two women with the words “FOOD RIPOSTE” written on their T-shirts were seen walking under a security barrier to get closer to the painting and throwing soup onto the glass, which was Leonardo da Vinci’s Masterpiece protected.

“What’s the most important thing?” They shouted. “Art or the right to healthy and sustainable food?”

“Our agricultural system is sick. Our farmers are dying at work,” they added.

Louvre staff were then seen putting up black plaques in front of the Mona Lisa, asking visitors to vacate the room.

According to the Paris police, two people were arrested after the incident.

On its website, the Food Riposte group said the French government was breaking its climate commitments and called for the creation of an equivalent to the country’s state-funded healthcare system to give people better access to healthy food while providing farmers with better care to enable regular income.

Angry French farmers have been using their tractors to set up road blockades and slow traffic across France for days. They also dumped smelly agricultural waste outside the gates of government offices.

On Friday, the government announced a series of measures that farmers said did not fully address their demands. These include the “drastic simplification” of certain technical procedures and the gradual abolition of diesel tax for agricultural vehicles.

France’s new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal visited a farm in the central Indre-et-Loire region on Sunday. He acknowledged that farmers are in a difficult position because “on the one hand we say ‘we need quality’ and on the other hand ‘we want ever lower prices’.”

“It’s about finding short, medium and long-term solutions,” he said, “because we need our farmers.”

Attal also said his government was considering “additional” measures against what he called “unfair competition” from other countries that have different production rules and import food into France.

He promised to make “further decisions” in the coming weeks to address farmers’ concerns.