What are the three main French agricultural unions?
- The FNSEA, largely in the majority
The National Federation of Farmers’ Unions (FNSEA) claims more than 200,000 members. It is hegemonic within the chambers of agriculture and practices a form of “co-management” with the executive.
It is managed by Arnaud Rousseau, a large cereal producer and president of the large group specializing in Avril oils, who stated as a priority since his election, “sovereignty and competitiveness”which go hand in hand with “farmers’ income, still far from being at the level”. The union is making around a hundred demands, ranging from the defense of the means of production (fuel, charges, moratorium on pesticides) to the demand for administrative simplification and fairer competition.
Allied to Young Farmers (JA)which brings together farmers under the age of 38 and campaigns to encourage the establishment of new farmers, the FNSEA won more than 55% of the votes in the 2019 professional elections.
Read also | Angry farmers: the FNSEA maintains its showdown with the government
Add to your selections
To add the item to your selections
identify yourself
To log in
Second agricultural union with 21.5% of the votes, the Rural Coordination (CR) was born at the end of 1991 from a split from the FNSEA, which it accused of ” double-dealing “ on the common agricultural policy (CAP), considering it as the armed arm of an unfortunate globalization that only plays into the hands of the big cereal growers of Beauce.
Liberal and conservative, led by organic dairy farmer Véronique Le Floc’h, the CR defends a “agricultural exception” French, with a majority of small farmers whom it considers crushed by free trade. It is in the majority in Vienne, Haute-Vienne and in its stronghold of Lot-et-Garonne, where the emblematic president of the chamber of agriculture, Serge Bousquet-Cassagne, claims “18 trials in thirty years”.
The CR has distinguished itself by several striking actions (ransacking of supermarkets, occupations of premises, etc.) in recent years. Within this union which aims to be apolitical but which is very courted by the far right, Serge Bousquet-Cassagne assumes his proximity “with all the rights”.
Read also | From Lot-et-Garonne, rural coordination on the offensive against the government
Add to your selections
To add the item to your selections
identify yourself
To log in
Third agricultural union with 20% of the votes, the Confédération paysanne (CP) is supported by environmental movements and anti-globalization farmers. It was founded in 1987, among others by José Bové. She criticizes the dominant model of “productivism” only benefiting “agribusiness”which exhausts the earth and men.
His opposition to free trade is fueled by a plea for sustainable agricultural development around the world. She pleads for massive support for the agroecological transition and fears a retreat from the government on environmental standards under pressure from the FNSEA and the CR.
Having withdrawn from the farmers’ angry movement, the CP joined the movement, to defend “a fair income” for farmers in a context of health and climate crisis.