“The time for a political decision has come”: the government expected on the agricultural crisis

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP 10:31 p.m., February 20, 2024

At the end of an interview with Emmanuel Macron, the boss of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, assured that the "expectations" of farmers "are very strong" as the opening of the Agricultural Show approaches. the president is scheduled to inaugurate on Saturday. The trade unionist warns that “the time for political decision” has come.

The government now has all the farmers' demands in hand and "the time for a political decision" has come, said the majority union FNSEA on Tuesday, which is firmly awaiting announcements. “Expectations are very high” in the run-up to the opening of the Agricultural Show that the President of the Republic is to inaugurate on Saturday, indicated the boss of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau following an interview with Emmanuel Macron.

“Process” of farmers in Paris

To maintain the pressure until the end, the FNSEA and its union ally the Young Farmers (JA) have planned a “procession” of farmers in Paris on Friday evening led by a few tractors and ending in front of the doors of the Show. A police source expects “something calm and restrained”. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is due to speak on Wednesday morning at a press conference dedicated to the agricultural crisis, in particular to detail the content of the agricultural orientation bill.

Tuesday evening in Le Figaro, he announced the launch of a parliamentary mission on an evolution of the Egalim law so that it takes better into account the "cost of production of farmers" as well as the publication of a decree declaring all agricultural sectors “professions in tension” making it easier to use foreign labor.

“Denial of reality”

“We consider that our work is done and that we have put in the hands of the public authorities the very clear, very structured elements of what we expect,” underlined Arnaud Rousseau during a meeting with three media including 'AFP. “If the announcements are not there, if there is no account, we will say on this point there is no account. But I do not imagine that with the work that we have done, there is deafness of this nature,” added the union official.

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 Agricultural Show: towards a major debate between executive and farmers to appease anger?

In his eyes, Emmanuel Macron's visit to the show cannot be a "classic stroll". A debate with farmers is possible, "the President of the Republic has rather given his agreement", indicated Arnaud Rousseau. On Tuesday, the Head of State also received the president of Young Farmers, an ally of the FNSEA, and he had already met last week with other representatives of the profession (Rural Coordination, Peasant Confederation and Modef).

The Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau and the Deputy Minister Agnès Pannier-Runachier are holding more meetings with representatives of various sectors and unions. They also both participated on Tuesday in a meeting on commercial negotiations between food stakeholders, which aimed to guarantee the proper application of the Egalim laws supposed to ensure decent remuneration for farmers.

Mobilizations in Poland and Greece

After a wave of anger which manifested itself in January through road blockages and sometimes tumultuous actions, the government attempted to appease farmers with a salvo of announcements ranging from the payment of emergency aid to decrees of simplification through a “pause” on the Ecophyto pesticide reduction plan. Representatives of the profession have since repeated that they want to see the first results before the opening of the Agricultural Show.

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 INFO EUROPE 1 - Paris: a farmers' demonstration authorized on the eve of the start of the Agricultural Show

On the ground, the tension remains palpable. Around twenty farmers from the FDSEA of Pas-de-Calais and the JA, for example, carried out operations on Tuesday morning in supermarkets in Calais to check the places of production of food products. In the south, farmers blocked the A62 motorway in the evening, between Agen (Lot-et-Garonne) and Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne), according to Vinci Autoroutes. Rural Coordination, the 2nd agricultural union in France, is also planning a demonstration on Friday in Paris. “The coaches are filling up” and there should be “a lot of tractors”, according to the union.

The chambers of agriculture called on Tuesday to maintain "elements of positive communication with citizens" at the time of the Agricultural Show, to explain for example to consumers that by putting "a few cents or a few euros more on their plate ", it can improve the income of farmers. The mobilization also continues elsewhere in Europe, with for example in Poland the blocking of around a hundred roads and cross-border crossings by farmers denouncing Ukrainian imports deemed "uncontrolled" and in Greece the arrival of more than 130 tractors in front of the Parliament in Athens by farmers demanding an increase in financial aid.