Christiane Lambert, president of the FNSEA since 2017 and omnipresent in the field and in the media, will leave her post in the spring while remaining the spokesperson for French agricultural causes on the European scene.
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"
I have decided not to seek
" a new mandate at the head of the first French agricultural union, she told AFP, referring to a "
decision carefully considered with (her) family and (her) peers
" , taken for “
various reasons
” including health reasons.
The 61-year-old farmer rose through the ranks of agricultural unionism, representing a still largely male profession, successively becoming first president of the Young Farmers' Union (then National Center for Young Farmers, from 1994 to 1998), of the FNSEA then of the Copa, an organization bringing together the main European trade unions which she has led since 2020.
She now intends to focus on this European mandate to "
represent France and bring the voice of French farmers to Brussels
", while organizing the transmission of her own farm in Maine-et-Loire.
“
After more than 30 years of commitment to the FNSEA and 40 years of
trade union commitment, Christiane Lambert intends to “
slow down
” and “
have a life after the FNSEA
”.
fight for income
In a tweet announcing her departure from the presidency, she said she was "
proud of an agriculture placed at the heart of the economy and society
".
Christiane Lambert will have tirelessly pleaded for better remuneration for farmers, a prerequisite according to her for the greening of practices.
She has also continued to castigate the “
salon ecologists
” and “
agribashing
”.
After leading the "
battle for income
", she still warns today against further setbacks.
Read alsoChristiane Lambert, the crossroads of the peasant cause
Global warming?
Farmers are "
the first victims
", she repeats tirelessly since the hot summer of 2022. "
Agriculture knows that it has a certain amount of progress to make
" to meet environmental requirements, she acknowledges. , but “
as long as food safety is not penalised
”.
"
We have brought the subject of food sovereignty to the top of the pile
", especially since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, still notes Christiane Lambert.
The breeder did not miss an opportunity either to raise public awareness of the cumulative consequences of the crises, highlighting the distress of breeders, market gardeners, winegrowers and cereal growers.
"
Farmers rely heavily on the FNSEA
", she says, and "
behind the farmers, all rurality comes together
".