The socialist parliamentarian is visiting her department this Friday to listen to a sector in difficulty.
In a country of knowledge but on a terrain not necessarily in phase with the convictions which are his. Socialist European MP, Gardoise Chloé Ridel is in Gard, this Friday, November 22. Before going to meet her party activists, she devoted most of her day to agriculture, more precisely to viticulture. On the program, a visit to a particular cellar, that of the Patience estate in Bezouce, very close to Lédenon where she grew up, then that of the cooperative cellar of Marguerittes.
Agriculture is not at its best. Actions at the initiative of the FDSEA and Young Farmers took place at the start of the week in Gard and throughout France. In the department, they should resume at the beginning of next week and move up in rank. Viticulture is a very sick patient. “But it was important for me to come to the field to discuss with professionals in the sector the problems they encounter at the European level”says in the preamble the parliamentarian, perfectly aware of a lack of harmonization of standards which biases competition with Spain and Italy for example.
Angry viticulture
She also mentioned during this visit the land issue and this urbanization which tends to be to the detriment of agricultural land as well as the consumption of wine, regretting in passing “the stigmatization that we sometimes make of it and its excessive demonization”. Member of an intergroup on wine in the European Parliament, she assured that she would bring “the interests of the sector”. She also recalled the opposition of her group and all French parliamentarians to the trade agreement which is emerging between the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia) and the European Union.
“Viticulture is angry at a system which could allow the European and French market to absorb production which does not correspond to the standards we impose on ourselves”regrets Denis Verdier. On the list of grievances of the president of the Gard wine federation IGP: the demand for a simplification of European standards for the wine sector and the need to establish a market regulation mechanism to eliminate surpluses and maintain the costs. “We are in real lobbying”assumes Denis Verdier, sensitive to the listening demonstrated by Chloé Ridel. “But we are perfectly aware that this is long-term work”he adds.
Trade unionism takes note of France's opposition to Mercosur
If the trade union world has been fighting since the beginning of the year to make its voice heard by the French government, David Sève, the president of the FDSEA, took advantage of the arrival of Chloé Ridel to put on the table the concerns that encounter between French agriculture and Europe. We are talking about European distortions, the common agricultural policy and Mercosur, obviously. “Faced in particular with the automobile industry and the Germans who look favorably on this market for selling cars, we do not want agriculture to be sacrificed on the altar of free trade,” he warns.
The trade unionist takes note of the unanimity in France of the political class against these agreements. He said it to the socialist Chloé Ridel. And because agriculture speaks to everyone, he will also say it, this Saturday in Beaucaire, to Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally.
F. P.
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