Ophélie Artaud / Photo credit: JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER / AFP
Clashes between demonstrators and the police, a President booed… On Saturday, Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the Salon de l’Agriculture was chaotic. Faced with the anger of many farmers, the Head of State attempted debate, and even appeasement, with several announcements to help the sector in crisis. Among them, the establishment of an emergency cash flow plan, the inclusion in the agricultural law as “major general interest”, or the establishment of “floor prices”, demanded by one party producers. A final measure which caused a lot of reaction. But for Stéphane Le Foll, former Minister of Agriculture and mayor of Le Mans, this is a “false good measure”.
“What prices? At what level? Who decides? Do we include national, European or international markets in this price? How do we manage to manage such complexity through a price?” asks Stéphane Le Foll at the microphone of Europe 1 Morning weekend. On Saturday, Emmanuel Macron explained that these “floor prices” would “protect agricultural income”. The sales price would thus be set in relation to the production cost of each sector.
“A way to reassure” farmers
For the mayor of Le Mans, these are “attractive” measures, to ease tensions with farmers, “but which in reality or in application, call into question [en cause] which has existed for 40 years. We can contest it but the model we put in place must be as effective.”
According to him, this announcement is above all “a way of reassuring” farmers, but which could turn against the government. “We are going to have an authority which will define the prices. Which one? I don’t know. If it’s the government, I wish it good luck in defining the price which includes, if I understand correctly, both the costs production and farmers’ income.”
According to Stéphane Le Foll, “these are subjects that are launched like this, in the context of a crisis, with extremely serious consequences. Should we leave the market economy in the field of agriculture, it is a real question. But it cannot be done at an agricultural show and under pressure”, he criticizes on the microphone of Europe 1.