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Involved, via the ultra-powerful federation that he leads, in the mobilizations of farmers against the free trade treaty which resume this Monday, Arnaud Rousseau is also at the head of the Avril group, a multinational oilseed and protein crop, which provokes the anger of the other unions.
Is the president of the FNSEA playing a double game? While the majority farmers' union calls for new mobilizations from this Monday, the Peasant Confederation (on the left) and the Rural Coordination (on the right) denounce, against a backdrop of union discord in view of the elections to the chambers of agriculture in January, the double hat of Arnaud Rousseau. Depending on the circumstances, he is the leader of the FNSEA which denounces as such the trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur – the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, validated the principle on Friday in Uruguay. Or that of president of the Avril group, an industrialist in the oilseed and protein sector and a supporter of free trade. “We are in an open economy,” he proclaimed on September 18 before the Economic Affairs Committee of the National Assembly.
A month later, in October, the Avril group announced with great fanfare the acquisition of A.Azevedo Oleos, a large producer and distributor of castor oil in Brazil, a country which is part of Mercosur and therefore of the agreement to which Paris is categorically opposed: “And
