Will Emmanuel Macron maintain the debate at the Agricultural Show?

As the Agricultural Show opens its doors this Saturday, Emmanuel Macron announced that a major debate with stakeholders from the agricultural world would be held there. However, the unions seem to be dissociating themselves from it one by one.

THE agricultural centre starts this Saturday, February 24. Emmanuel Macron will be present for the opening and is expected to stay at least two hours on site. He will take this opportunity to debate with stakeholders in the sector after the major farmers’ demonstrations which punctuated the month of January. The president will thus meet with farmers, unions (FNSEA, Young Farmers, Confédération paysanne, etc.) but also representatives of associations or mass distribution (Lidl, Leclerc, etc.) according to Franceinfo.

Even before starting this debate is already divisive. In question ? The invitation from the Earth Uprisings (SDT), a radical ecological collective that the government wanted to dissolve a few months ago. Initially invited before the press, the organization is no longer invited. But it never was, according to the latest clarifications from the presidential office on ahead of the event.”

This misunderstanding and the simple fact of having thought of inviting the collective caused considerable controversy, particularly with the FNSEA. The president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, did not want the association to come, which he considered to be an “unacceptable provocation for farmers”. And he made it known on Twitter that he refused “to take part in what will be a charade” if the environmental movement was present. For its part, the SDT collective reacted on Twitter describing the debate at the Agricultural Show as a “hoax”.

The debate canceled?

Despite the government’s backpedaling, the FNSEA is sticking to its positions. Arnaud Rousseau confirmed on RMC this Friday morning that he would not participate: “I will not go to this big debate. I indicated this last evening. I find that what is happening is incomprehensible, the cynicism which prevails in what I observe is intolerable for the people I represent,” he explained. This incomprehension in the speech ofEmmanuel Macron could greatly disrupt the holding of the debate: “It’s not a mistake at this stage, it’s a really big blunder. It’s going to leave its mark,” assured Franck Pellerin, farmer and secretary general of the FDSEA of Morbihan , on RMC.

Within the Rural Coordination also some are turning their backs on the possibility of discussing with the Head of State. The president of the union, Véronique Le Floc’h, “expects nothing” from this debate and indicated that she would not attend to “let [sa] place to [ses] colleagues” on RTL this Friday morning: “They wanted to manipulate us as if we were puppets, it’s so far from the point that if they don’t get to the point right away we’re going to continue wasting our time.” On the Young Farmers side, the president of the union Arnaud Gaillot also announced that he would go to the show but not to the debate: “I will not go to the debate. This is neither the place nor the time for a debate of this nature. We respect property and people, we work seriously with state services and behind it, we have this kind of initiative.”

For the unions, the debate is losing credibility even though it has not even started. Same story with the environmentalists, MP Marie Ponchon evokes a “great nonsense and great amateurism on the part of Emmanuel Macron”. Even on the mass distribution side, there will be a shortage of people. Michel Edouard Leclerc, for example, announced that he will be among those absent: “I will therefore not participate in what I consider to be gross manipulation”, he revealed in a press release on X.

Should Emmanuel Macron really maintain the debate? On this subject, the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, is uncertain: “I hope (that it) can take place […] we need to work with the unions”, he admitted in the morning of TF1. He himself deplored an “inopportune” invitation.