is the government condemned to choose?

As farmers’ anger grows in France, the Prime Minister meets their unions on Monday. They denounce excessively heavy financial burdens and environmental standards.

Farmers continue to block the A64 on Monday January 22. Faced with this anger which has been expressed for several days, the president of the FNSEA, the first agricultural union, Arnaud Rousseau and the Young Farmers will be received in Matignon, at 6 p.m. hours. For Gabriel Attal, there is an urgent need to regain control. The government repeats that it is “alongside the farmers”but beyond the declarations, they demand “concrete acts”, proofs of love in a way. Farmers are facing inflation in the cost of living and an increase in non-road diesel. And they are increasingly contesting certain regulations, the suspension of which they are demanding. As a result, the government is caught between two difficult to reconcile demands.

On the one hand, that of ensuring farmers a decent standard of living and making their task easier to help them produce more. On the other, the requirement to respect environmental regulations concluded at European level to accelerate the ecological transition. This tension is increasing in rural France, but also among many neighbors, for example in Germany or the Netherlands. Agricultural organizations are calling for a pause in the implementation of environmental standards. They ask, for example, to be able to make more flexible use of pesticides or to free themselves from certain irrigation restrictions by storing water.

The far right is riding on the anger of farmers

For now, the government is buying time. The Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, announced on Sunday the postponement of his text on the installation of new farmers, the time to add a component “simplification”. But beyond that, the problem remains. As early as last May, Emmanuel Macron spoke of the need for “break” at European level in establishing new environmental constraints. A statement which caused discontent among environmentalists.

Except that almost everywhere in Europe, the far right is riding on peasant anger. On Saturday, in Gironde, Jordan Bardella worked to recover it by accusing the EU of wanting “kill French farmers”. Faced with a complex issue which requires reconciling the interests of farmers and those of the environment, the National Rally can be content with simplistic diatribes: its program in favor of ecological transition is non-existent.