as the European elections approach, the candidates will jostle at Porte de Versailles

D-1 before the agricultural show. Emmanuel Macron will make the inauguration on Saturday. But it’s all the politicians who will be jostling there from Sunday.

All politicians will want their photo with Oreillette, the Norman cow muse of the 2024 edition, from February 24 to March 3. The Agricultural Show is always synonymous with a political parade, but this year there is a double phenomenon. The anger of farmers which has put agriculture at the heart of the news… and the European elections which take place in three and a half months, on June 9. The Show is therefore the right place to campaign, among professionals, but also the public. No other event allows you to meet so many potential voters.

The crossover in the aisles will therefore be intense. The National Rally (RN) is going there for three days: Jordan Bardella on Sunday and Monday, Marine Le Pen on Wednesday. They will not have exactly the same stands, just to increase contacts. Between the RN passages, it is Gabriel Attal who will stop at Porte de Versailles on Tuesday. This will be an opportunity to see if the Prime Minister lives up to the nicknames that one of his advisors gives him: “Gabriel Chirac” Or “Jacques Attal”. A way of saying that the Prime Minister would have “chiraquished” himself in recent weeks.

The RN and the presidential majority will not be the only ones in the aisles to conquer the agricultural world. Les Républicains (LR) candidate François-Xavier Bellamy will go to the Salon on Sunday for “work meetings” with her running mate, cereal producer Céline Imart. He will return there on Monday for the stroll-tasting part with Eric Ciotti. Eric Zemmour and Marion Maréchal will also appear in tandem as party leader and head of the list on Thursday, with the slot “the fight against the tyranny of technocrats”.

From communists to rebels, including environmentalists, the left will not be left behind

The communist Fabien Roussel plans to make his candidate Léon Deffontaines eat tripe from 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning. “With farmers, we speak the same language”confides Fabien Roussel who likes to point out that there is a sickle in the party logo.

The atmosphere will perhaps be a little different for the environmentalists’ visit on Friday, even if Marine Tondelier and Marie Toussaint insist that they are alongside the farmers. The green candidate criticizes the government for going green “the scapegoat for agricultural anger”. She will not meet the head of the Socialist Party list, Raphaël Glucksmann, a great defender of the importation of Ukrainian chickens in the name of solidarity in the face of war. He is expected in the first days of the Salon, like Manon Aubry. The rebellious will see “all unions” Monday, in contrast to Jean-Luc Mélenchon who had snubbed the largest farm in France during his 2022 and 2017 campaigns, in disagreement with the “mode of agriculture” promoted to Porte de Versailles. Manon Aubry will take the opportunity to hammer home her opposition to European free trade treaties. Clearly, Oreillette will hear a lot of political talk…