Ten days before the Agricultural Show, Emmanuel Macron received two agricultural unions on Wednesday who welcomed the “listening” of the Head of State while choosing to continue mobilization on the ground, while waiting for “the realization” of the government announcements.
The President of the Republic, who traditionally receives the unions before the show, met successively in the afternoon with representatives of the Rural Coordination and the Peasant Confederation, respectively 2nd and 3rd agricultural unions.
Next week he will see the FNSEA, in the majority.
The atmosphere remains electric.
If they have taken note of the emergency aid - 400 million euros - announced by the government, this is not enough, according to them, to respond to the deep malaise in the countryside where many farmers are unable to generate "an income decent ".
The head of state “took the measure of the situation, he listened carefully” and heard “our subliminal message:
Leave us alone and let us work
,” Serge Bousquet-Cassagne, president, declared to the press. of the Lot-et-Garonne Chamber of Agriculture and figure of Rural Coordination (CR), leaving the Élysée.
At his side, Karine Duc, co-president of the CR in Lot-et-Garonne, listed the “strong points” discussed with the Head of State, in particular the request for “emergency cash flow measures” for farmers, “simplification at all levels”, the lifting of production constraints, particularly environmental ones, or the imposition on imported products of the same standards as those applied in France.
“At the end of a system”
“Ecology is what we do in our fields, we have already made a lot of efforts.
Let us produce,” she added, while the government suspended, to the dismay of environmental NGOs, the Ecophyto plan on reducing the use of pesticides in France.
“After the measures announced by the government, we asked for a clear timetable,” said Karine Duc, specifying that her union would maintain “the pressure” with actions in the street for as long as necessary.
On Wednesday in Agen - from where the union had initiated a convoy to Rungis, the food hub of the Paris region - members of the CR dumped straw in front of a bank branch, to demand the suspension of loan repayments for the year 2024. Representatives of Rural Coordination also warned the Head of State that any meeting of the executive in the presence of the FNSEA alone “would be tainted with suspicion of co-management”.
The day before, the boss of the powerful federation, Arnaud Rousseau, and the president of Young Farmers, Arnaud Gaillaud, had welcomed “advances” after a two-hour meeting with Gabriel Attal, while also indicating “keep up the pressure”.
The FNSEA wants to see the first concrete results of simplification measures on farms, demands a “software change” from the government, expects the brakes on production to be lifted: ban on pesticides, unfair competition, overabundance of standards and paperwork, according to She.
Macron expected at the show
FNSEA and JA obtained from Gabriel Attal the principle of a monthly monitoring point on simplification measures, but Arnaud Rousseau warned: after two weeks of blockage and the worst crisis experienced by the agricultural world in 30 years, "that no one I don’t think that because the tractors have come in, things are settled.”
The “quality” of Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the show “will depend on it”.
The Peasant Confederation, received at the end of the afternoon by the president, asked for “a strong signal” from the government “to put an end to competition between farmers”.
“We ask the government to announce the end of negotiations on free trade treaties”, in particular that of Mercosur with Latin America, declared its spokesperson Laurence Marandola.
On the question of income, central for the union born from the anti-globalization peasant struggles, Laurence Marandola pleaded for the establishment by law of "the prohibition of transactions below the cost price, that is to say the costs of production, remuneration and social protection.
“We are at the end of a system.
This is not an agricultural crisis like any other,” she told AFP during the day.
Faced with climate change, soil pollution and human exhaustion, the Confédération paysanne expects from the government “strong support for the agroecological transition” and the “indispensable” reaffirmation of an ambitious trajectory for reducing pesticides.
She also does not intend to let down her guard before the Agricultural Show and is planning numerous peaceful actions throughout France.
In the Var, she organized a “wild market” on Wednesday in front of a Carrefour store in Draguignan, offering “farmer products” to raise consumer awareness.