Unlike the president of the Chamber of Agriculture, who last week refused to give voting instructions for the legislative elections, a collective of 150 farmers and agricultural employees are calling to vote for the New Popular Front.
“We prefer to see what unites us: the break with neoliberal policies, ecological planning, as well as a progressive and inclusive vision of society. This is why, in all our constituencies, we will vote for the candidates of the New Popular Front. »
In a column, published in the Basse-Marche newspaper I mean under, 150 farmers take a stand in favor of the candidates of the New Popular Front. “And in particular, we support Manon Meunier, outgoing deputy for Haute-Vienne, whose action we salute during her mandate in the field and in the Assembly for peasant agriculture, for ecology, for services public in our territory. »
The Venteau brothers at work
This text is the opposite of that of the president of the Chamber of Agriculture, Bertrand Venteau, who last week refused to give clear voting instructions, with a view to the legislative elections of June 30 and July 7. However, he called “to block those who kiss you, shake your hand and then stick a knife in your back as soon as they are at the Bourbon Palace, by voting for the laws written by the sphere of punitive and decreasing ecology” .
Less than six months after the agricultural crisis, the rural vote will be a strong issue. Former Macronist MP Pierre Venteau, supporter of the Republican Alternative, had a rift with the NFP. “The decreasing far-left program carried by the NFP will increase the constraints of everyday life tenfold, with reinforced ecological fundamentalists at all decision-making levels,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“Ecology is an opportunity”
These elections bring to the surface, in the agricultural world, the differences that already appeared at the start of the year, in particular between the FNSEA, the Rural Coordination and the Peasant Confederation, classified on the left. In Limoges, the case of the slaughterhouse concentrated the political issues, before the resolution of the conflict on Tuesday. Leader of the Republican alternative, without being a candidate, Guillaume Guérin castigated “the ultra-left (which) loves the poor so much that it creates them”, while the two LFI deputies welcomed “the very important concessions” obtained from Limoges metropolis by the strikers.
“It took an unfavorable electoral context for the political group of the president of Limoges Métropole to become aware of the difficulties of the slaughterhouse for which he is responsible,” write the two rebels. At the forefront on the subject of the agricultural law, but also on the fight against basins, Manon Meunier (LFI) is undoubtedly the one whose election will depend the most on the perception of her action, in the countryside.
While the RN came first in 190 municipalities in the department, on June 9, the agricultural vote could weigh on the electoral balance. In the RN, we are largely counting on an electoral jacquerie to come out on top in the three constituencies of Haute-Vienne on Sunday evening. “This is the greatest hope of farmers,” enthuses Christophe Lechevallier, during the RN press conference on Wednesday. They saw that for several years, the RN had been familiar with these agricultural issues. »
Gassed during a banned demonstration, Nupes MP for Haute-Vienne Manon Meunier denounces basin projects in Deux-Sèvres
But the forum of 150 farmers, including many players in the organic sector, defends another vision of agriculture. “From our point of view,” they explain, “ecology is an opportunity to build resilient and autonomous agricultural systems, producing quality food that is healthy for consumers, creates jobs and is profitable for farms. »
“Liberal extremism” and the RN back to back
Their signatories jointly reject “neoliberal extremism, which has led our country into the budgetary, economic and social slump in which it is today, thus giving rise to the extreme right” and “a climate-skeptical, anti-climate RN.” -ecologist, reactionary, authoritarian, homophobic, xenophobic, sexist”. Obviously, the agricultural world does not escape the double polarization which structures the French political landscape.
Campaigning for Europeans in Limoges, Marc Fesneau wants to prevent the agricultural crisis from leading to an electoral uproar
Sébastien Dubois
