All the deputies are "against" bee-killing insecticides but between agrifood "sovereignty" and defense of biodiversity and environmental promises, the National Assembly finally voted on the night of Monday to Tuesday, the key provision of the draft. law allowing the temporary reintroduction of neonicotinoids to save the beet industry.
The solemn vote on the entire bill will take place on Tuesday, after questions to the government.
"It is a difficult, important text, which does not want to oppose economy and ecology", according to the Minister of Agriculture, Julien Denormandie.
"The question is that of our sovereignty."
Due to the proliferation of a green aphid vector of the disease which weakens the plants in many areas, beets grown from seeds not coated with insecticide suffer from "jaundice".
The reintroduction of seeds coated with neonicotinoids should make it possible to protect sugar yields.
The problem is that this type of pesticide, reputed to be bee killers, was banned in 2018. And here is the government forced to back-pedal, relying on the European regulation on phytosanitary products allowing to derogate from the ban, potentially until 2023.
From LFI to RN, "we are all against" these bee-killing insecticides, agreed Minister Julien Denormandie.
But "today there is no sufficiently effective chemical or agronomic alternative", noted Julien Denormandie.
Absence of the deplored minister
The resulting drop in yields threatens the sustainability of the French sugar industry, which employs 46,000 people, many of them in processing plants, estimates the profession.
However, for the government, "killing a French industry to import Polish, German or Belgian sugar" is not an option.
"We are very annoyed with your text", noted Thierry Benoit (UDI).
"France does not have the maturity to organize the ecological transition (...) I would like Ms. Pompili who sold us the idea (of the ban on neonicotinoids) four years ago to be on the bench. the Assembly today ”, he lamented.
"We must not be in dogma and ensure that France remains a great farming country," said Christian Jacob, leader of LR deputies who support the government's text.
A measure of "regression" and "renunciation"
Conversely, the left presented a united front against the measure.
The boss of the LFI group Jean-Luc Mélenchon defended in vain a motion of preliminary rejection of the bill, judging that "a fault will be committed" and promising an action before the Court of Justice of the Republic.
"We are going to decide something dangerous for our fellow human beings, for our children, our grandchildren" and tomorrow other exemptions will be requested, he predicted, also estimating that "the French beet is sick of free -exchange 'more than aphids.
PS deputy for Meurthe-et-Moselle, Dominique Potier called for a plan B for the beet industry "for an economic, social and ecological transition".
Led by the former Minister of the Environment, Delphine Batho, the Ecology, Democracy and Solidarity group (EDS) criticized the “regression” and the “renunciation” of the government position.
By defending step by step the amendments hostile to the project, opponents to the text stretched the examination of the text and the deputies voted after one o'clock in the morning, Article 1 amended at the margin, which paves the way for exemptions.
The debates ended around 2:15 am.
Creation of a supervisory board
This key article also provides for the creation of a supervisory board and the ban, on plots where neonicotinoids have been used, from planting crops that attract bees so as not to expose them.
These two measures were introduced in committee by the LREM group anxious to "green" a text that comes at the worst time for the majority wishing to initiate an ecological shift symbolized by the citizens' convention for the climate.
The project, criticized by the pro-environment who have multiplied happenings near the Palais Bourbon and stands, will not also fill the votes of "walkers".
Some of them like Jean-Charles Colas-Roy, Yves Daniel or Sandrine Le Feur publicly announced their opposition to the text.
The deputies specified that the permitted exemptions explicitly target sugar beets by voting on the second article of the bill.
The government had promised it but did not want to include it in the text for fear of censorship by the Constitutional Council.