2024-01-23 06:27:57
The Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, leaving the first council of ministers of the Attal government, at the Elysée Palace, in Paris, January 12, 2024. JULIEN MUGUET FOR “LE MONDE”
It took two hours to “to strip things away”, in the words of the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau. Two hours to save time, too. This Monday, January 22, it was almost 8:30 p.m. when the meeting was held in Matignon with the tenant of the Villeroy hotel, the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, and Arnaud Rousseau, president of the National Federation of Trade Unions of farmers (FNSEA), accompanied by Arnaud Gaillot, president of the Young Farmers (JA), ends in an attempt to contain the anger of the agricultural world. An ordeal that feels like a test for Gabriel Attal, who is facing his first major crisis since his arrival, two weeks earlier, on rue de Varenne.
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No sensational announcement emerges from Matignon. On the steps, Marc Fesneau simply promises an answer “in the coming days”. “You have to go about it modestly, that’s more my style”he confides to Mondetwenty-four hours before facing opposition attacks in the Hemicycle. “We must first hear, collectively, the anger that is expressed”he enjoins. “There is exasperation, a cry that says “listen to us”, we need to send signals to restore confidence”continues the minister, aware that the solutions that will be proposed ” Thursday or Friday “ will not be able to completely extinguish the emerging fire.
Even before meeting state representatives, the head of the FNSEA had called for actions to be taken ” the whole week “. “We must let the anger purge”recommended to the Prime Minister, Monday before the meeting, the former Renaissance deputy for Creuse Jean-Baptiste Moreau, who was general rapporteur of the EGAlim law in 2018. “The movement will spread anyway, making announcements Monday evening would not change anything”estimates this former breeder.
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Put an end to “the France of hassles”
Starting from Occitanie, the movement of peasant anger echoes demonstrations in other European countries, such as Germany. To avoid conflagration, the executive is seeking, in the very short term, measures to simplify standards to demonstrate its goodwill towards the profession. It’s about putting an end to “the France of worries”as Emmanuel Macron asserted during his press conference on January 16.
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If Marc Fesneau has given up going to Brussels on Tuesday to attend the European Council, the elected official from Loir-et-Cher knows that in the longer term, he will also have to demonstrate to operators, five months before the European elections, that the Europe is an asset and that the Green Deal, the scarecrow brandished by the opposition, does not obey a logic of degrowth. It is urgent to calm things down to avoid contagion to other sectors (fishing, crafts, etc.).
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