Under pressure from farmers, still unfulfilled by the promises and actions of the government, Emmanuel Macron is preparing to visit the Salon de l’Agriculture in a tense climate on Saturday after having wanted to invite the Uprisings of the Earth to a major debate with the agricultural world , arousing the anger of the unions.
“The invitation by the PR (President of the Republic, editor’s note) to the #SIA of a small group whose dissolution was requested by its own government is an unacceptable provocation for farmers. I had agreed to participate in a debate. In these conditions, I refuse to take part in what will only be a charade,” declared the boss of the first agricultural union, Arnaud Rousseau, on X Thursday evening. He was quickly joined by his counterpart from the Young Farmers, Arnaud Gaillot.
An “eco-terrorist” movement according to Gérald Darmanin
The backpedaling was initiated by the Elysée an hour later with the announcement that the collective, once described as “eco-terrorist” by Gérald Darmanin, was finally no longer invited “to guarantee the serenity of the debates”.
But the damage was done and the opposition sharply criticized the executive’s choice. “Definitely, Macron embodies nothing other than confusion, contempt and disorder,” reacted far-right leader Marine Le Pen. The president of the Republicans Eric Ciotti denounced him for “at the same time macronist […] intolerable”.
At the end of the afternoon, the Elysée announced its intention to organize a debate, an unprecedented format for the visit of a head of state to the Agricultural Show (February 24-March 3), between Emmanuel Macron and “all the players in the agricultural world”.
“Without filter”
A few hundred people, union leaders, industrialists and leaders of environmental associations or mass distribution are expected, the Elysée said on Thursday, specifying that Emmanuel Macron wanted an exchange “as rich as possible, in a casual manner, in a republican state of mind but without filter”.
He “will have the opportunity to re-set a course for French agriculture by 2030 at the conclusion of this debate”, which should last at least two hours and be held in a “ring”, a traditional place for presenting animals, said a presidential advisor.
The various announcements from the government and the European Union since the start of the farmers’ protest movement seem to leave them wanting more. Road blockages and checks in supermarkets, the punch actions resumed with a vengeance on Wednesday after an intervention by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal summarizing the projects undertaken in recent weeks to improve and simplify the lives of farmers, on pesticides, seasonal workers or remuneration.
Two tractor parades are planned for Friday in Paris. The first, organized by Rural Coordination, will end around noon near Les Invalides. The second, led by the FNSEA and the Young Farmers, will end in front of the Agricultural Show in the early evening, with a weapons vigil being planned before the doors open on Saturday.
Also “a festive time”
Many farmers interviewed by AFP still have the feeling of not having been completely heard and the impression that measures have no immediate impact on their activities or their bank account.
“I didn’t think I would go back to the street again, I would prefer to be on my farm working” but “announcements have been made and there is still nothing concrete”, points out Adrien Spriet, who came to park his tractor on Thursday in front of the prefecture in Arras.
Brussels again presented new proposals on Thursday to ease “the pressure” on farms, relaxing the rules on meadows, limiting the number of controls and granting a certain tolerance in the event of non-compliance with the rules of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). ) during extreme climatic episodes.
These measures, likely to be adopted in March, will be examined on Monday by the Ministers of Agriculture of the Twenty-Seven. The FNSEA recognizes that the show presents itself this year “as an eminently political time”. Farmers are “strongly mobilized and attentive to the advances that will be presented to them,” says the union in a press release. But the organization also wants the event to remain a “festive time”. The muse of the 2024 edition, the Norman cow Oreillette, must in any case arrive at the show on Friday morning.