Ophélie Artaud
While Prime Minister Gabriel Attal receives agricultural unions tomorrow, many farmers regret not seeing the financial aid promised by the government arrive. This is refuted by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Marc Fesneau. At the microphone of Europe 1, he assures that sending them “does not delay”, and that there would only be “a few dozen files” to be processed.
The agricultural crisis continues, two months after the start of large-scale demonstrations by farmers. On Monday, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal will once again receive the agricultural unions, to continue negotiations. In the meantime, farms are still facing financial difficulties and many farmers regret not seeing the aid promised by the government arrive. A criticism that Marc Fesneau, Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, rejects. He assures him on the microphone of Europe 1 weekend morning: “it doesn’t drag on”.
“Crisis of historic proportions”
According to him, there would only be “a few dozen files” left to process. “The commitment that was made by the Prime Minister is to pay the aid which should have been paid a little earlier and which is the product of an advance generally by October 16. These have almost all been sold out,” he assures. As for aid from the common agricultural policy (CAP), “they are paid every year between March and the beginning of June, and we are trying to speed things up,” says the minister. This aid should thus be paid “exactly within the time frame which is that every year of the CAP. We cannot be blamed for not having accelerated those which should be accelerated. We will continue to accelerate [sur les autres aides, ndlr] because it obviously frees up cash for those who are most in difficulty.”
But, beyond the aid, farmers regret the lack of listening from the government on certain subjects. Monday’s meeting between the Prime Minister and the unions aims to “move forward on a certain number of subjects”, such as the question of pensions, phytosanitary rules, water… continues Marc Fesneau. “There are issues that can be resolved in the short term, others rather in the medium term and in the long term. Let us recognize that we are in a crisis of quite historic proportions in the agricultural world, which is sedimentation decades of unmet expectations”, recognizes the Minister of Agriculture. “In any case, tomorrow [lundi, ndlr]we will strive to continue to do so,” he assures at the microphone of Europe 1.