Farmers: FNSEA raises the stakes, prefers government “stability” – 11/29/2024 at 6:21 p.m.

The majority agricultural union FNSEA, which announced new demonstrations on Friday for December 9 and 10, asks deputies to measure the “consequences” of government censorship, which would further slow down the realization of the promises obtained.

Friday morning on RMC, the president of the FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau announced new “actions”, “everywhere in France”, on December 9 and 10.

This is to mark the third (and normally last) phase of the mobilization initiated since mid-November around three themes: opposition to the conclusion of a free trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur countries, denunciation of “impediments” to the exercise of the profession (restrictions on pesticides or the construction of reserves for irrigation) and pressure to obtain a better income.

The new demonstrations will therefore take place “around income, around the relationship with the price of our products, particularly in the context of the start (…) of negotiations with distributors”, explained Arnaud Rousseau.

Annual commercial negotiations between supermarket brands and their food industry suppliers (Danone, Bigard, etc.) begin. They must be concluded by March 1.

“It will be Monday and Tuesday of that week [9 et 10 décembre, NDLR]with the objective that we can conclude our cycle (of demonstrations) with a meeting with the Prime Minister (…). We need concrete results to be achieved,” he added.

The union leader did not hide his fear of witnessing censorship of Michel Barnier's government by the National Assembly between now and then.

“For almost a year, (…) we have obtained a certain number of things. But the dissolution and the threat today which weighs on the government leave us to think that a certain number of the advances which have been announced will not necessarily be there. This is the case, for example, of the cash loans on which the minister. [de l’Agriculture, Annie Genevard] made announcements three weeks ago,” said Arnaud Rousseau.

In a message on

He pleaded for “stability”.

– “Not sustainable” –

Michel Barnier and Annie Genevard come from the ranks of LR and therefore from a right historically sensitive to the demands of the majority union and its ally Young Farmers (JA).

“If we still have to wait for a next government to have decisions, for us, it is not tenable,” said Mr. Rousseau on RMC.

After their winter movement, the farmers obtained government commitments, which remained pending due to the dissolution of the National Assembly.

The agricultural unions relaunched a protest movement in mid-November, in dispersed order as their professional elections approached, but with in common the demand for a better income and opposition to the proposed free trade agreement. EU-Mercosur exchange.

Annie Genevard, who received FNSEA-JA on Friday, then Modef and Rural Coordination (CR), must make “announcements on simplification for farmers” during a trip to the Loiret on Saturday morning.

“What we are waiting for is a firm, written commitment from the Prime Minister to say that everything that will be applied tomorrow to French farmers and farms will not be overtransposed in relation to Europe”, c That is to say, more demanding than community regulations, the president of the CR, Véronique Le Floc'h, declared to AFPTV upon leaving the ministry.

The Peasant Confederation, which also calls for better income and administrative simplifications without however contesting the standards and their control, will be received “in the coming days”.

The professional elections, scheduled for January, are creating additional tensions. The CR intends to break the hegemony of the FNSEA-JA alliance, which today chairs almost all of the chambers of agriculture.

Last week, a trip by the president of the FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau to Lot-et-Garonne was disrupted by activists from the CR, where this customary organization of punch actions is in the majority.