Radio silence from the government. At the end of a meeting organized at the Elysée on Thursday, May 2, bringing together a panel of representatives of agricultural authorities, only the union spokespersons spoke to describe this meeting. An expected meeting, since Emmanuel Macron had promised it at the end of February, during the inauguration under the boos of the Agricultural Show, marked by the anger of the farmers. It was to be held in mid-March, before being canceled and, ultimately, scheduled six weeks later.
Farmers are now busy with field work and should be until the fall. The time is therefore no longer for major mobilizations, especially since the government has stepped up its efforts to respond to the pressing demands expressed first and foremost by the National Federation of Farmers’ Unions (FNSEA).
In addition to the 67 measures already presented by the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, on January 26, he again unveiled a new round of announcements, Saturday April 27, eager to close the chapter of agricultural discontent. The Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, put the total amount of aid granted to the sector since the start of this protest episode at between 500 million and 600 million euros.
Union tensions
However, Mr. Macron reportedly declared, during the meeting at the Elysée, “that he did not believe in the end of the movements as the causes were protean and that what interested him was to build a project for the future and that he did not intend to run behind the anger », according to comments reported afterwards by Arnaud Rousseau, the president of the FNSEA.
Overall, it emerges from this interview that the President of the Republic wants to take his time to deliver his vision of agriculture, an exercise that the agricultural unions insist on. In particular the FNSEA, for whom the so-called “Rungis” speechdelivered by Mr. Macron in 2017, who advocated an upscaling of French agriculture, ” lived “.
The host of the Elysée would have even suggested to the agricultural unions to wait until the elections of the chambers of agriculture, scheduled for January 2025, have passed. He highlighted the union tensions linked to the issues of this electoral deadline, which could interfere with the exercise.
Develop a collective project
He had first announced that he was ready to deliver his speech, known as “Rungis 2”, at the start of the school year in September. However, faced with the answers from the audience to his question “ Will there still be tractors on the street? “, he therefore estimated, according to the participants in Thursday morning’s meeting, that it might be necessary to postpone the end of the consultation. “ I don’t want to find myself alone in the pampas », he would have said, eager to develop a collective project.
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