why the government is worried about farmers’ anger

Could farmers’ anger lead to a deeper political crisis? The concern is in any case palpable and growing at the highest level of the State. Tractors ready to hit the road for Paris, farmers threatening to dump their produce in front of the prefectures… This is the picture that a friend of Emmanuel Macron painted to the president this weekend. “A dull anger and images that can be frightening”, worries a heavyweight of the majority.

Pending feedback from the prefects, the Elysée is trying to calm things down: “The head of state is concerned about the situation of farmers, blurted out one of his advisors. He always believed that it was necessary to protect consumers without ever attacking farmers.” The file is managed by Matignon, hence the meeting scheduled for Monday January 22 with the main agricultural unions, the National Federation of Agricultural Operators’ Unions (FNSEA) and the Young Farmers (JA), as well as this new move of the Minister Marc Fesneau, also Monday, in Vendée, on the theme of water management.

The examination of the agricultural orientation law, initially scheduled for Wednesday January 24, was postponed for “a few weeks”. Before or after the opening of the Agricultural Show at the end of February? Impossible to say. This delay will allow time to understand the causes of the crisis, and according to the ministry, “to incorporate simplification measures into the text”.

Fertile ground for the RN

Fewer standards and an easier life are precisely what farmers are demanding during demonstrations like that of Carbonne, near Toulouse where the A64 motorway is still cut at the start of the week, for the fifth day in a row.

“The pact of trust with the government is broken“, estimates Pierrick Horel, secretary general of Young Farmers, on franceinfo, before being received by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.

“It’s a general feeling of fed up. The feeling is that the pact of trust with the government is broken. We had major announcements, from ‘at the same time’ from the government, which explained to us that We had to progress very quickly, but without resources on the environmental issue or the energy transition”

Pierrick Horel

at franceinfo

The lack of “real vision or financial support” come “crystallize a discontent which is exploding today in the territory and in the countryside“, analyzes the general secretary of Young Farmers. Remuneration, environmental standards considered too restrictive, end of tax reductions on non-road diesel… The problems are numerous, and they can “be managed if we have sufficient income from our farms, but this is no longer the case“, he believes.

But “there is no catalyst, it is difficult to assess their demands”, For his part, he grimaces at support from Emmanuel Macron, which makes the movement even more difficult to define and the ground all the more fertile for the National Rally, less than five months before the European elections. “Everyone will start talking like us, but politics is like love, you need proof,” Jordan Bardella told franceinfo on Saturday January 20 on the sidelines of a visit to a farm. “A guilty speech, rising prices, a form of helplessness”, says a worried minister: “The circumstances are ripe for total exasperation.”

Here is therefore a second front to manage for the new Prime Minister while the Amélie Oudéa-Castéra controversy rebounds, with new revelations from Médiapart and that Prime Minister Gabriel Attal still does not have a complete government.