Pierre Vermeren: “With the farmers’ revolt, we are faced with a choice of society and civilization’ The anger of farmers is the consequence of decades of destruction of the peasant economy and opening to the world market, he says. Beyond the agricultural model, it is our way of life that is at stake, explains the historian.
In a drifting society which must follow the contradictory injunctions of its leaders, the peasants have become a cultural refuge of the identity of France, he concludes.