The coordination of mutual societies had invited seven candidates to the European elections on Wednesday evening: all responded, except the head of the Renaissance list, Valérie Hayer. Overall, the mutuals believe that the issue of pesticides, asbestos and more broadly public health was another major absence from the campaign.
“For us, mutualists, there is nothing more important than health, and health is life”recalls Martin Rieussec-Fournier. “It is particularly strange, when the European Union has a major responsibility in the common agricultural policy, and we know that it is not good for our health if the tap water in our kitchen contains pesticides, that public health was not a big theme of this campaign But it’s not too late!
Especially since the context is rather gloomy in this matter, recalls the mutual coordinator. “On the one hand, there is the explosion of a certain number of diseases: today, 23 million French people suffer from one or more chronic illnesses. These long-term conditions are extremely expensive, of course, for Security. The more a person has a pathology, the more they will be required to have other complementary care and this will impact mutual health insurance.
500 children die of cancer in France each year
“Our number one role is to work on prevention”he specifies. “And it is a responsibility that Ambroise Croizat gave us in 1945: mutuality, as a whole, has the vocation of moving forward and being a driving force in relation to prevention. It is in this framework that we act, because breast and prostate cancers are exploding, cancers which are hormone-dependent. Pesticides, what are they, in particular, oil? a lot of endocrine disruptors in pesticides.”
The mutual societies are notably defending a reform to halve the use of pesticides by 2030, a proposal rejected by the European Parliament six months ago. “For us, very clearly, public health is non-negotiable. There are many pathologies which also affect the youngest: every year in France, 500 children die of cancer, or 20 school classes. But the European Union has not made children’s health and public health a priority. For us, this is not possible! Things absolutely have to change.”
