In France, but also in Germany and the Netherlands, farmers’ demonstrations have increased in recent days. The subject, highly flammable as the European campaign begins, is the subject of all political attention.
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Avoid at all costs a new “yellow vest”-style crisis. The Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, and the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, went on Saturday January 20 to meet rural France to try to defuse the anger of farmers, as did the president of the National Rally (RN ), Jordan Bardella, visiting wine growers.
Marc Fesneau, recently reappointed, went to a dairy farmer in Cher at the beginning of the afternoon, before a “working meeting with professional agricultural organizations” For “listen, recall the actions carried out on points of concern and concretely present the next projects”according to his office.
“More controls” on commercial negotiations
For his part, the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, went to the Rhône to take the pulse of rural France. During a public meeting in front of 150 elected officials and residents, he announced that he would meet Monday evening with the leaders of the FNSEA and Young Farmers unions. In response to a market gardener, the Prime Minister paid tribute to French agriculture, “one of the highest quality in the world”.
“We hear unacceptable things: no, farmers are not bandits (…), polluters, no, farmers do not torture animals.”
Gabriel Attalin response to a market gardener in the Rhône
Gabriel Attal once again said he wanted “guarantee farmers to be able to make a decent living from their work”citing the Egalim laws 1, 2 and 3, passed since the arrival at the Elysée of Emmanuel Macron and supposed prevent farmers from selling at a loss. He promised “more controls” to ensure that annual commercial negotiations between supermarket brands and their agro-industry suppliers are not to the detriment of the prices paid to farmers.
“Farmers must be able to live from their work”, declares Gabriel Attal
. – (FRANCEINFO)
A promise shared a little earlier by the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, in trip to Flavigny (Marne) with the wine industry. “Starting next week, the General Directorate for Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention will increase checks on current commercial negotiations,” he said.
In the Rhône, Gabriel Attal also promised administrative simplification, offering farmers to provide examples of “paperwork” useless. Finally, he also said he wanted “facilitate transmission” agricultural operations. A bill to this effect must also be presented to the Council of Ministers on Wednesday January 24. He plans in particular to create a one-stop shop to welcome candidates for installation, but the profession imagined a more ambitious text.
“Economic patriotism” and exit from free trade
These parallel ministerial outings are no coincidence. The executive is worried to see the angry demonstrations of farmers gaining momentum, a month before the opening of the Agricultural Show, and six months before the European elections, where the National Rally is the favorite. Result: the prefects received instructions, at the request of the Elysée, “to go this weekend to meet the farmers” and their unions, “as close as possible to the field”.
Increased charges, delays in payment of agricultural subsidies, feeling of being crushed by national or European standards, in the name of ecological transition: the reasons for anger are numerous and protest actions have multiplied in recent days, in France or among its European neighbors, particularly in Germany.
An anger which has not escaped the National Rally either, whose president, Jordan Bardella, also head of the list in the European elections, spent the day on the wine-growing lands of Médoc, in Gironde. “Macron’s Europe wants the death of our agriculture” in not “stopping putting it in competition with agricultural products from the ends of the world which do not respect any of the standards (…) imposed on French farmers”he said, refuting the idea of a “distance duel” with the Prime Minister in view of the European elections.
Jordan Bardella meets Médoc winegrowers, January 24, 2024
. – (FRANCE TELEVISIONS)
The boss of the RN proposed to exclude “agriculture free trade agreements” and to demand “mirror clauses” in agreements concluded with foreign producers in order to subject them to the same health and environmental standards than French producers. He also advocated the “economic patriotism” by establishing the “priority of French farmers in access to public markets”. Finally, like Gabriel Attal, he rebelled against “L‘normative inflation’ suffered by farmers.
The boss of RN deputies, Marine Le Pen, also tweeted support for farmers on Saturday, denouncing “the EU mill which overwhelms them with standards, negotiates deadly free trade treaties behind their backs”.
The RN “seeks to blow on the embers of farmers’ anger and despair, but it is only electoral opportunism for the European elections”estimated Marc Fesneau, castigating RN elected officials who “do not work in the European Parliament and therefore do not defend farmers on a daily basis.” Jordan Bardella’s absenteeism in committee at the European Parliament was recently highlighted in an issue of “Complément d’investigation”, on France 2.
“I am in a commission in which we examine the fate of brown bears in Romania. (…) I prefer to be on the ground and to be in plenary session, that is my conception of the policyreplied Jordan Bardella to the Minister of Agriculture. If the French felt that this was not our role, we would probably not be in the lead in these European elections.” Although it is not a duel, the tone is well set: the battle has only just begun.