President Emmanuel Macron strolls behind a massive security cordon at the agricultural fair on Saturday afternoon, but is not protected from the whistles and insults of hundreds of farmers, both angered by his presence and demanding concrete measures to improve their working conditions.
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The head of state tastes honey from the Pays d'Auge and cheese from Haute-Savoie, shakes hands and answers questions, appearing almost imperturbable, but his voice is regularly drowned out by the noise and the opening program is completely confused by an unprecedented confusion.
He is protected by dozens of CRS equipped with shields, who pushed protesters back about fifty meters from him in occasional clashes. The names of birds fly around: “scumbag” or “liar,” as do the cries (“Go away!”) and calls for resignation.
According to the Paris prosecutor's office, three people were arrested and subsequently released for violence against a public official; You will be called later.
The president, who arrived at 8 a.m., began the day with a meeting with union leaders and then improvised a two-hour debate with other representatives of the three main agricultural unions, the FNSEA, the Young Farmers and the Rural Coordination.
The president leaned at a bar table and listened to their complaints about income, controls, pesticides and financial aid. A format far away from the big debate with NGOs and representatives of organic farmers in a time that the Élysée imagines.
“I always prefer dialogue rather than confrontation,” emphasized the head of state. “I tell you that the work on site has been completed, we have made the copies and are in the process of making all the simplifications,” he defended himself.
“As long as this doesn’t happen on the farms, we’ll be on guard,” replied one farmer.
“Did you hear it? He doesn't let the farmers talk, he interrupts them, he speaks informally… We're not friends, that's not possible. We want him to go,” a farmer from the Oise, Eric Labarre, FNSEA member, told AFP.
Fights
The clashes occurred when he reached the pavilion where cows, sheep and goats are on display. Hundreds of people broke down the gates and forced their way in, defying security and police, and several beatings occurred, resulting in an hour and a half delay in opening the show to the general public.
The doors of this hall, which was the most popular, were alternately opened and closed to the public, highlighting the general confusion and leading to astonishing scenes of children tasting cheese just meters from the helmeted riot police. And quite a disappointment: “There were CRS everywhere. “Atmosphere of a besieged fortress,” complains Sophie Sucurovski, 28, who came from the Ardennes with her two-year-old son.
Later, the stand of Lactalis, the world leader in dairy products, which was accused of paying poorly for milk, was covered in manure that leaked a brown liquid.
Price and law
Emmanuel Macron has arranged a meeting with union representatives within three weeks of the show, which will last until March 3.
But at this time farmers prepare their fields for spring, while the show traditionally takes place in the dead of winter when the fields require less work. If the head of state receives the unions at the Élysée Palace, farmers will be able to spend less time away from their farms, observers note.
Emmanuel Macron reiterated that in response to the movement that exploded on January 18, the government had made 62 commitments and made several announcements, including the introduction of a “floor price” to better compensate farmers, a census of holdings, emergency aid need, etc., the inclusion in the law that agriculture and food are “an important general interest of the French nation”.
“Publicizing the concept of minimum prices is already a small revolution,” AFP welcomed Laurence Marandola, spokesman for the Confédération Paysanne, a union that opposes intensive farming. »This minimum price is then determined by sector so that it is divided between producers and downstream companies. We will be careful.”
As for the great general interest of agriculture, a source within the executive branch states that this “involves legal consequences”. This was a request from the FNSEA and could, for example, facilitate the construction of agricultural irrigation projects despite the presence of protected species.
“Stupidity” of the RN
The President of the National Cattle Association and 2nd Vice President of the FNSEA Patrick Bénézit had a lively exchange with the head of state, who confused him with the head of the entire beef industry, including slaughterhouses and traders.
“Eye to eye” Emmanuel Macron criticized the Cantal breeder – which constantly demands that buyers take into account the costs of agricultural production – for failing to protect the income of producers.
During a lively debate that ended in handshakes, the president raged against the idea that international trade inevitably hurts French agriculture: “I want us to close the French borders, but good luck, we won't export anything anymore.”
He also attacked the Rassemblement National and denounced a “project of growth and stupidity” that consisted of “leaving Europe.” While the movement of agricultural anger had calmed down since Gabriel Attal's announcements three weeks ago, he left the country after the Élysée cited the radical Collective of Uprisings of the Earth among the possible participants in a major debate at the show, which ultimately came before the Bronca was canceled.
Emmanuel Macron reiterated on Saturday that he “never thought” of initiating an invitation to the radical environmentalist collective that stood out in March 2023 during a day of clashes over the construction of an artificial water reservoir in Sainte-Marie. Soline (Second) Sèvres) and the government could not dissolve