France is worried, the European Commission believes in it

Michel Barnier, who is already struggling to complete the 2025 budget, could very quickly find himself faced with another politically explosive issue: the agreement between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia), which has poisoned French political life for more than twenty years, could be concluded very soon.

While from the National Rally to La France insoumise (LFI), the French political parties are almost all opposed to it and the agricultural world is preparing, once again, to take to the streets, the Prime Minister has clearly seen the danger.

This is one of the reasons for the former European Commissioner's trip to Brussels on Wednesday, November 13, where he has a meeting with several officials from the Commission, which negotiates trade agreements on behalf of the Twenty-Seven. In particular, he is due to meet the president, Ursula von der Leyen, there in the afternoon. “The Prime Minister will [lui] recall its total opposition to the agreement [UE-Mercosur] »said the Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard, on Tuesday. That same day, more than 600 French parliamentarians – deputies, senators and MEPs – alerted, in a letter, Ursula von der Leyen of “the democratic explosion” what “would generate” such an agreement “in our country which is already under the political threat of anti-European populism”.

The agricultural unions are also increasing the pressure, evoking the prospect of the signing of a free trade treaty between the EU and Mercosur as well as that of seeing the United States and China overtax some of their agri-food imports. Since the beginning of October, sporadic actions have been organized. This week, they have been more numerous and are expected to intensify in the coming days.

Frosty relationships

After the demonstrations at the start of the year, the National Federation of Farmers' Unions (FNSEA) called on its troops to mobilize strongly “from mid-November”. The Rural Coordination promises, for its part, “an agricultural revolt” starting November 19. As for the Peasant Confederation, heir to the anti-globalization struggles, it is also planning actions.

Ursula von der Leyen, with whom Michel Barnier, when he was the negotiator of the post-Brexit agreements, maintained frosty relations, knows the concerns of her visitor. But, among those around her, we cannot imagine her ready to renounce, for the sake of the beautiful eyes of Paris, an agreement that she has been calling for for a long time.

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