A month before the opening of the Agricultural Show and with the European elections approaching, the multiplication of signs of discontent among farmers is worrying the government. The discontent in neighboring countries has not escaped the executive. After the Netherlands, it is from Germany that the anger of farmers is being heard, with a massive mobilization against a plan to increase taxes on agricultural diesel, with road blockages and tractor parades.
In France too, one-off actions are being organized. Dairy farmers gathered Thursday in front of several Lactalis sites in the West, denouncing the price of milk set by the group based in Mayenne, considered too low. On Friday, traffic was blocked by farmers on the A64 between Toulouse and Bayonne. On a whole series of “hot topics”, the profession “waits for very clear answers before the Agricultural Show” (from February 24 in Paris), warned the president of the FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau during his wishes. Threatening to “return to the field” for lack of satisfactory answers.
Diffuse reasons
Inflation, administrative burdens, fed up with the feeling of being crushed by national or European standards, in the name of ecological transition: the reasons for anger are diffuse. “I hear and I am very attentive to the expressions of farmers,” assured Friday in an interview with La Dépêche du Midi the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau, emphasizing “having obtained a historic budget for our agriculture of 4 billion for the next three years”.
During his press conference on Tuesday, Emmanuel Macron cited agriculture among the areas where he intended to “accelerate” the “rearmament” of the country. The president “asked the Minister of the Interior to instruct the prefects to go this weekend to meet farmers” and their unions, the Elysée said on Friday. So that they “exchange directly” with them “close to the ground”, like the Minister of Agriculture.
The RN in ambush
The new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, during a trip last Sunday to Caen, stressed that “one of the first bills” that his government will present concerns “the renewal of generations in agriculture”. This text, on the menu of the Council of Ministers of January 24, plans to create a new bac + 3 level diploma, an “agro bachelor”, and a one-stop shop to support candidates for installation. The profession was awaiting a more ambitious guiding law.
In this climate of concern, the far right is on the lookout: received on Friday by Gabriel Attal, the president of the RN Jordan Bardella asked him to “decree a state of agricultural emergency” and “to establish economic patriotism for protect our farmers.” Jordan Bardella, also head of the RN list in the European elections, plans to meet farmers from Gironde on Saturday to support their demands. “The RN seeks to blow on the embers of the anger and despair of farmers, but it is only electoral opportunism for the European elections”, criticizes Marc Fesneau, castigating the elected RN who “do not work in Parliament European and therefore do not defend farmers on a daily basis.