Sébastien Lecornu receives farmers’ unions already able to re-mobilize | EUROtoday

After a brief truce in the course of the end-of-year holidays, farmers are able to mobilize once more to make their voice heard by the federal government. In this context, the Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, plans to obtain the farmers’ unions for 2 days, beginning Monday January 5, with a view to defuse a disaster and beat back the specter of a 3rd winter of peasant anger.

The head of presidency will obtain the Young Farmers (JA) on Monday at 3 p.m., then the Rural Coordination (CR) at 6 p.m., earlier than assembly Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. with the highly effective FNSEA then the Peasant Confederation.

Everyone hopes for a respite from the crises which can be shaking the agricultural world: an epizootic of contagious lumpy pores and skin illness (LCD) which is affecting cattle; low worth of wheat and excessive worth of fertilizers which overwhelm cereal growers; risk of elevated competitors from Latin American Mercosur international locations. In the rebellious South-West, on the entrance line of the well being disaster, the vaccination of cattle is accelerating – with 74.7% of the livestock involved vaccinated as of January 4 – however the herds are solely thought of immunized a minimum of twenty-one days after the injection. Three new outbreaks of DNC have been detected in latest days in Ariège.

Imports of South American merchandise suspended

The authorities promised on Friday to announce “many measures” in favor of farmers “throughout the month of January”in line with Mr. Lecornu’s entourage. On the eve of the conferences in Matignon, the Prime Minister spoke to farmers on Sunday in a “open letter”promising to “say things clearly”.

“For too long, a feeling has dominated in your profession: that of a profound injustice, that of a structural inequity, that of a pile of rules coming from far away which, sometimes, have lost their common sense”acknowledges Mr. Lecornu. Recalling sure measures already taken – “the rules started to be simplified” –, he guarantees to enter a “firmer, more offensive phase”notably with regard to the European Union (EU).

Mr. Lecornu calls specifically on the EU to “rapidly amplify” its border controls for all agricultural merchandise that “would not respect sanitary and phytosanitary standards” of the Union imposed on producers. “In this expectation, we assume to act now”underlines the Prime Minister.

Sébastien Lecornu and the Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard, confirmed on Sunday that they’d droop by order the importation of vegetables and fruit from South America containing residues of 5 fungicides and herbicides banned in Europe – mancozeb, glufosinate, thiophanate-methyl and carbendazim. Expected Tuesday at Official Journalthe decree will nonetheless should get hold of a inexperienced gentle from Brussels.

“I am not asking you to believe in words: I am asking you to look at actions”urges Mr. Lecornu in his letter. But the mine clearance operation guarantees to be delicate, and for the second, the unions all choose “insufficient” the guarantees made.

Insufficient guarantees for unions

In a press launch, the FNSEA denounces a “lack of vision (…) deadly » and considers that none of the announcements contained in Mr. Lecornu’s letter “do not provide concrete answers to farmers’ income issues”. The union calls for “an exceptional agricultural law” permitting exemption from sure “regulatory barriers”particularly for “relaunch production” agricultural and “put an end to absurd controls”.

Unanimous of their opposition to the EU-Mercosur free commerce settlement, which needs to be signed on January 12, they nonetheless differ of their evaluation of the administration of dermatosis.

The Rural Coordination (second union, adept at punch operations and anti-ecologist) and the Peasant Confederation (third union, categorised on the left) are on the forefront of the protest, occupying highways, roundabouts or round affected farms: they’re demanding widespread vaccination of the herd (practically 16 million cattle) and an finish to finish slaughter from the primary case.

On the CR aspect, the need to battle stays palpable within the southern strongholds of the union. “If things go badly, we will have to go to Paris, in tractors, in cars…”declared to Agence France-Presse José Pérez, president of CR47, spearhead of probably the most spectacular demonstrations within the South-West.