EDITORIAL. Why so much concern for farmers?

For several days now, we have been witnessing a “mining operation” on the part of the government, in the run-up to the Salon de l’Agriculture

Gabriel Attal on the farm, episode 99… We never stop seeing the executive at the farmers’ bedside, between trips to the field and meetings which are multiplying behind the scenes. It must be said that the government has torn its hair out with the 1,001 demands of farmers: breeders, cereal growers, organic, market gardeners, hedges, non-road diesel, and the always impossible cleaning of ditches, a metaphor for a government in turn mired, drowned in Kafkaesque rules. Don’t throw any more away!

Gabriel Attal had to try again three times: he had already made announcements, leaves casually placed on a bale of straw conveniently placed… The strategy having shown its limits, he had to start again, a first time then a second with yesterday’s press conference. But this time we were not promising the big night at Matignon, this crisis is accelerated training in humility.

The Agricultural Show of all dangers

The challenge of this three-step waltz was to prepare the ground for Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the Salon, Saturday February 24. The executive is feverish at the idea of ​​images of a president being booed, hissed, which would be looped on the news channels, worried at the idea of ​​the contrast with the visit of a Marine Le Pen who is progressing at Farmers. It’s easy to be applauded when you’re in opposition: you just have to blow over the embers and propose common sense things, no one will hold you to account.

The president is expected at the turning point: a “big debate” with the farmers could take place before the stroll between the stands on Saturday. If everything is not settled on the merits, it is also to let Emmanuel Macron enter the dance and make announcements himself. This visit should feel like a recovery.

The electoral weight of the agricultural world remains significant

If their share in the active population has declined, the agricultural electorate represents 8%, and symbolically much more: nine out of ten French people have a good opinion of them. No wonder everyone is fighting over them, less than four months before the European elections: the LR have recruited a farmer on their list, while the RN wants to surf on the fed-up with standards.

And then there is the specter of the “yellow vests”: popular movement, difficulty in calibrating the response for the executive… Despite the common points, the discontent of the peasants must remain circumscribed, and the story must not stutter not. This Agricultural Show is the last chance to finally appease the anger of farmers, with this difficulty: not only does France have to come to terms with the European Union, but also Bruno Le Maire has just whistled the end of recess on the spending side: ten billion euros of savings to be found, that is not totally compatible with checkbook policy.