Arthur de Laborde with AFP / Photo credits: PATRICK BATARD / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
The executive is mobilizing to try to extinguish the anger of the agricultural world. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, faced with his first crisis since his appointment on January 11, will receive with his Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, the FNSEA and Young Farmers this Monday evening at 6 p.m. “Our farmers are not bandits, polluters, people who torture animals, as we sometimes hear,” he said on Saturday in the Rhône, as a sign of appeasement.
Financial burdens and environmental standards considered too heavy
But anger is brewing and the profession is waiting for concrete measures. Since Thursday evening, several dozen operators have been blocking the A64 motorway, which links Toulouse to Bayonne, near Carbonne, in Haute-Garonne. Demonstrations provoked by financial burdens and environmental standards considered too heavy. The gradual increase in taxation on non-road diesel (GNR) amplifies the fed up.
The profession burned by the successive postponements of the agriculture bill
The profession is scalded by the successive postponements of the agricultural bill, promised more than a year ago by Emmanuel Macron and ultimately less ambitious than the “agricultural orientation law” initially announced. On Sunday, Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau announced a new deadline. The text, which was to be presented to the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, will only be presented in “a few weeks” with the aim of being debated in Parliament “in the first half of 2024”. Its presentation could take place just before the opening of the Agricultural Show, on February 24.
The bill that the government must present intends to promote generational renewal in agriculture, a necessity at a time when the population of nearly 500,000 farm managers is aging. It will be completed to allow a “simplification” of the multitude of regulations imposed on the profession, Marc Fesneau promised on Sunday.
The agricultural vote courted by the National Rally and the Republicans
The executive wants at all costs to avoid seeing a “Yellow Vest” type crisis develop, five months before the European elections. Especially since the agricultural vote is very popular, in particular by the National Rally and the Republicans.
From the middle of last week, Emmanuel Macron called on the government to analyze anger in order to respond to it. Several ministers therefore deployed on the ground this weekend to appear at work on the multiple subjects of tension. The head of state also called on the prefects. This Monday, they must provide summaries of their meetings with farmers.