Until now, farmers mainly dumped manure there along with their anger. For two weeks, it is without their tractors and with piles of demands under their arms that they have been marching in the prefectures. On January 26, in the midst of an agricultural crisis and in the middle of hay bales on a farm in Haute-Garonne, Gabriel Attal announced a “shock of simplification” For ” release “ operators of administrative constraints and standards, particularly environmental ones, considered too heavy and too numerous. The Prime Minister gives the prefects until the Agricultural Show (February 24-March 3) to orchestrate this “shock”. One month to lead at full speed, in all departments, of ” time ” destined for “to bring up, with our farmers, everything that can and must be simplified”.
Absolutely everything. In the Channel, farmers are calling for a relaxation of regulations on hedges to be able to remove more of them – 20 kilometers were affected in 2023 – in order to expand their farms. In Haute-Garonne, they obtained additional time to put an end to the spreading of fertilizers (causing ammonia emissions which transform into fine particles) during pollution peaks. In the Var, the prefect will modify the “wild boar” decree: to prevent their damage, “from now on, prior to each shooting operation, the holder of the hunting order will only notify the sector scout by SMS” and no longer the National Office for Hunting and Wildlife, as well as the gendarmerie. In total, around 900 “proposals” have already been inventoried and around sixty prefectural decrees modified or repealed, according to the executive.
In Oise, three meetings were held. “We are listened to, but we are not promised anything, even if we feel a desire to move things forward in the right direction”, summarizes Linda Monnier, the boss of the departmental federation of farmers’ unions (FDSEA). A final meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 20. “And there, we wait for answers”, thunders the union leader.
“They fall out of their chairs”
Other participants from the department portray prefects who seem to discover the complexity of their jobs. “When we talk about our daily lives, we have the impression that they are falling out of their chairs”testifies Marie Ortegat, market gardener in organic farming and member of the Confédération paysanne. “The prefects are sometimes so surprised by what they are told that they turn to the representatives of their departmental and territorial directorates who agree: “Yes, it’s possible””, adds Sophie Lenaerts, dairy cow breeder and member of the Rural Coordination.
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