The Prime Minister attempts appeasement.

Faced with the anger of farmers which is spreading in Europe without sparing France, Gabriel Attal receives Monday January 22 in Matignon the powerful agricultural union FNSEA, which is awaiting "concrete acts" after the postponement of "a few weeks" of a project of law that needs to be fleshed out.

The Prime Minister, faced with his first crisis since his appointment on January 11, will receive the FNSEA and Young Farmers at 6 p.m.

“Our farmers are not bandits, polluters, people who torture animals, as we sometimes hear,” he said on Saturday in the Rhône, as a sign of appeasement.

But anger is brewing and the profession is waiting for concrete measures.

Since Thursday evening, several dozen operators have been blocking the A64 motorway, which links Toulouse to Bayonne, near Carbonne, in Haute-Garonne.

Demonstrations provoked by financial burdens and environmental standards considered too heavy, while the gradual increase in taxation on non-road diesel (NGR) amplifies the exasperation.

Tax increases and the European Green Deal

The government fears a conflagration while from the Netherlands to Romania via Poland and Germany, farmers are stepping up actions against this tax increase and the European Green Deal.

All against a backdrop of inflation and competition from Ukrainian imports.

The United Kingdom is not spared: fruit and vegetable producers will demonstrate on Monday in front of Parliament in London to protest against the "unfair" purchasing contracts which bind them to the main retail brands.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal during a trip to Orliénas, in the Rhône, on January 20, 2024. Jeff Pachoud, AFP

In France, the profession is also scalded by the successive postponements of the agricultural bill, promised more than a year ago by Emmanuel Macron and ultimately less ambitious than the "agricultural orientation law" initially announced.

On Sunday, Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau announced a new deadline.

The text, which was to be presented to the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, will only be presented in "a few weeks" with the aim of being debated in Parliament "in the first half of 2024".

“We are no longer a week away, but we will need very concrete things,” reacted to AFP the vice-president of the FNSEA Luc Smessaert.

He calls in particular to “stop the over-transposition” of European standards and “to apply 100%” the Egalim law of 2021, which aims to protect farmers’ remuneration.

The bill that the government must present intends to promote generational renewal in agriculture, a necessity at a time when the population of nearly 500,000 farm managers is aging.

“Drastic simplification”

It will be completed to allow a “simplification” of the multitude of regulations imposed on the profession, Marc Fesneau promised on Sunday.

“A drastic simplification of standards” is necessary, added the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire on TF1.

“We have started to provide answers,” said the Ministry of Agriculture, welcoming the “historic” budget – 4 billion euros for the next three years including 1.3 billion in 2024, allocated to agriculture .

“But we are going to accelerate further.”

➡️ Anger of farmers



🗣️ @BrunoLeMaire "shares the pain of French farmers" and recalls that Prime Minister Gabriel Attal will receive the FNSEA tomorrow January 22



▶️ #LE20H @ACCoudray pic.twitter.com/chNimf7lGo

— TF1Info (@TF1Info) January 21, 2024

Less than five months before the European elections, the oppositions are courting the agricultural world.

Starting with Jordan Bardella, president and head of the list of the National Rally, who castigated on Saturday from the wine-producing Gironde "Macron's Europe which wants the death of our agriculture".

Both right and left have asked the executive not to increase the tax on non-road diesel.

Operators “have no other choice but to use them,” noted Communist Party boss Fabien Roussel on Sunday.

We must “immediately renounce this measure” added the leader of the Les Républicains deputies, Olivier Marleix, providing “very clearly” his support for the mobilization.

🚜 🌾 We support our farmers.

France has the most beautiful agriculture in the world.

The Government is killing it, by aligning itself with the position of the Greens, in the National Assembly and the European Parliament!

#PoliticalSunday pic.twitter.com/azrIHFYcLT

— Députés Les Républicains (@Republicains_An) January 21, 2024

In the absence of rapid progress on the various points of contention, the FNSEA has already threatened to amplify actions and disrupt Emmanuel Macron's visit to the Agricultural Show, which will be held from February 24 in Paris.

On the Brussels side, a meeting of agriculture ministers is planned for the start of the week.

With AFP

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