On the occasion of the start of the examination of the PLF 2025 by the deputies, the Peasant Confederation is calling for a mobilization before the National Assembly this Thursday, October 17.
Rather spared by the general austerity cure recommended by the Finance Bill (PLF) 2025, the agricultural sector is however not completely satisfied. This Thursday, October 17, on the occasion of the start of the budget review, the Peasant Confederation has planned a mobilization before the National Assembly, to demand in particular the improvement of social protection for farmers.
This gathering is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. and will be marked in particular by testimonies from “farmers on the issues of social protection,” according to the union.
A fairer distribution of aid
This formation is not the only one to express some reservations in relation to the PLF 2025. According to information from La France agricole, the Movement for the Defense of Family Farmers (Modef) has, for example, called for a “fairer distribution of aid public”.
He deplores “partial management of the health crises in livestock farming” and the “absence of political will […] to establish sustainable agriculture.
The majority unions, FNSEA and Young Farmers, on the other hand said they were “satisfied” with this budget. According to them, it takes up their “proposals on competitiveness”, increase in exemptions from the Property Tax on undeveloped properties (TFNB), improvement of the deduction for precautionary savings and accumulation of exemptions for young farmers in the lead.
If dissatisfaction remains, it is among other things because farmers have been demanding, since last January, administrative “simplification measures”, which would have a concrete and direct impact on their activity. For Arnaud Rousseau, the president of the FNSEA interviewed on TF1 this Wednesday, this concerns, for example, checks deemed too frequent on farms, the manure spreading schedule or even the volume of stocks.
A “first warning”
After last winter’s agricultural crisis, the government committed to more than a billion euros in measures in favor of the sector. Thus, the 2025 budget notably provides for the abandonment of an increase in taxation on diesel, the reduction of the tax base of cattle breeders and incentive measures for the transfer of farms.
At the beginning of October, Prime Minister Michel Barnier also announced a new envelope of 75 million euros for breeders victims of bluetongue serotype 3 and promised future “loans guaranteed by the State “.
This Wednesday, the Ministry of Agriculture finally announced the start of payment of direct European aid, i.e. “more than 4.32 billion euros” to more than 253,000 farmers. Faced with the “cash flow difficulties of many farmers”, Minister Annie Genevard increased the advance payment rate “to the maximum authorized by European regulations”.
However, small outbursts from farmers have multiplied since the end of September. As if echoing the beginnings of last year’s movement, road signs were once again dismantled in Occitanie and Eure-et-Loire. According to the Young Farmers Union, this constitutes “a first warning” which could herald a new winter of agricultural anger.
