DIMITAR DILKOFF / AFP
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal at the Salon de l’Agriculture on February 25, 2024.
POLICY – “It is neither a media circus, nor a political circus, nor an activist circus.” After the very chaotic visit of Emmanuel Macron then that of RN leader Jordan Bardella, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal was this Sunday, February 25 in the evening at the Salon de l’Agriculture and tried to set the record straight.
“I want to remind you that this show belongs above all to farmers and the French. And I remind you that the Salon de l’Agriculture must be, this year again, the national holiday and the popular success that it has been for 60 years for the French”, said the Prime Minister the day after an opening marked by clashes between police and farmers opposed to the visit of the Head of State. Despite the clashes, the latter remained in the Salon for 13 hours.
Without naming him, the Prime Minister attacked Jordan Bardella, visiting the Salon this Sunday, and the RN. “ The French are not fooled by anything. Neither exploitation, nor lies, nor window dressing”, retorted Gabriel Attal. He further declared that “that the entire government (was) alongside the farmers” and “the whole country was united behind (them)” during their demonstrations.
“Neither the USSR nor the Wild West”
“French agriculture must be neither the USSR nor the Far West”he added, before insisting: “We need rules, with a clear objective: to protect. (…) Our enemy is not the foreigner, it is the law of the unbridled market”. And “ You, who are agricultural professionals, know better than anyone that this agricultural exception should in no case be a closure. Because to give up trade is to condemn our agriculture to collapse”he assured.
Present at the very end of the day for the 60th anniversary dinner, the head of government then slipped away, making an appointment for Tuesday, the day of his long visit to the Salon.
For several weeks, the executive has been seeking to emerge from the agricultural crisis which had been brewing for months but exploded in January. Emmanuel Macron and Gabriel Attal have multiplied the announcements, without however succeeding in completely convincing farmers awaiting concrete actions.
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