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Neonicotinoids: imbroglio around a Senate vote against their reintroduction

2020-10-27T23:17:47.319Z


Senators voted against the temporary reintroduction of bee-killing neonicotinoids, but a parliamentary group reportedly tro


Surprise this Tuesday evening at the Luxembourg Palace.

With one vote, the Senate with a right-wing majority voted for amendments from the left aimed at opposing the temporary reintroduction of neonicotinoids to save the beet industry.

The amendments to delete article 1 of the bill examined at first reading were voted by 159 votes in favor and 158 against.

Article 1 is the heart of the text.

It aims to authorize, by way of derogation, sugar beet growers to use until 2023 seeds treated with pesticides from the neonicotinoid family, “bee-killing” pesticides banned since 2018.

The result of the vote aroused astonishment even in the ranks of senators.

According to the Communist senator from Seine Saint-Denis Fabien Gay, one of the groups would have simply been wrong in voting for these amendments and not against.

# Clarification on the vote on article 1 on #neonicotinoids.

Except for 1 vote, we removed it on the initiative of the left groups.

Except that a group made a mistake, there will therefore be a second deliberation.

The fight continues ✊ pic.twitter.com/cXNagY2966

- Fabien Gay (@fabien_gay) October 27, 2020

After a short recess, the Minister of Agriculture Julien Denormandie requested a second deliberation, which will take place just before the vote on the entire bill.

Already voted on at first reading by the National Assembly, the text was adopted by the senators in committee, despite the resolute opposition of the left bloc.

It provides for the creation of a supervisory board to give an opinion on exemptions, as well as the ban, on plots where neonicotinoids have been used, to plant crops that attract bees so as not to expose them.

According to LR rapporteur Sophie Primas, this is “an emergency text”.

A "flashback" for the left

"Yes, the French sugar beet industry is now in danger", affirmed during the debates in the Senate Julien Denormandie, ensuring that the bill is "in no way a text of the lobbies", but that “There is no alternative”.

"It is not a question of opposing ecology and economy, it is a question of sovereignty", he insisted.

Denounced on the left as "a step backwards", "a regression of environmental law", the bill encountered a barrage of the left bloc.

The Communist and ecologist majority CRCE groups unsuccessfully defended motions to reject the text out of hand.

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For the rapporteur, "two political visions of ecology" are opposed, an "ecology of mistrust choosing to prohibit" and an "ecology of trust, perfectly aware of the urgency, demanding, which is based on the reality of our territories, on progress and on research ”.

The exchanges became tense when the president of the environmental group Guillaume Gontard denounced "a huge victory for the agrochemical lobby, the Bayer-Monsanto Trojan horse", accusing the government of "dealing a violent blow to all the world's biodiversity".

Denormandie denounces an "ecology of defamation"

"I found your comments absolutely scandalous," responded Julien Denormandie, criticizing "an ecology of defamation".

“The immense difference between farmers and you is that farmers […] have the courage to have their feet, their boots in the ground”, continued the Minister.

For Laurence Rossignol (PS), "it's not a good debate, a debate where we accuse ourselves of telling untruths".

In 2016, Parliament voted to ban phytosanitary products based on neonicotinoids, a family of pesticides that act on the central nervous system of insects and mammals, a ban that has been fully applicable since 2018. Even if research avenues are showing promise, no alternative is currently available for producers.

READ ALSO>

Return of neonicotinoids: beets or bees, who to save?


For the year 2020, Sophie Primas evokes estimated yield losses “between 13 and 20%” on the national territory, which includes unaffected areas.

“In some departments, average losses will undoubtedly be over 40 or even 50%”.

In addition to the agricultural emergency, there is the industrial emergency, according to the rapporteur.

In total, the sector represents nearly 46,000 jobs, direct and indirect.

Source: leparis

All life articles on 2020-10-27

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