in Brittany, mayors decrease the European flag to “support” the agricultural world | EUROtoday

In latest weeks, the native press has immortalized the identical scene virtually all over the place in Brittany. Mayors ” angry “ wave the European flag. Often from the proper, generally from the left, these elected officers demand the half-masting of the blue and yellow flag “in support of farmers”. Although few requirements fly within the coronary heart of winter, to keep away from harm because of rain and wind, some metropolis councilors even announce that they’ve eliminated that of the European Union (EU) from the municipal constructing. “Farmers have the impression that they are not trusted and are fed up with questionable European decisions. Mercosur has crystallized their anger. Here we support our farmers. We need Europe, but not at any price or in any way”, proclaims Stéphane Cloarec, mayor (varied proper) of Saint-Pol-de-Léon (Finistère). Candidate for his succession in March, the councilor defends this motion “symbolic” imitated by all of the mayors of the group of municipalities.

If Brittany prides itself on being the nation’s pantry, able to producing meals for 22 million individuals, Saint-Pol-de-Léon stands out as one of many nerve facilities of the regional agricultural mannequin. This a part of Finistère is the birthplace of Alexis Gourvennec (1936-2007), a tumultuous commerce unionist identified for having based the highly effective agricultural cooperative SICA and creating the delivery firm Brittany Ferries with a view to export native manufacturing throughout the Channel.

The elected officers of Saint-Pol-de-Léon and the encompassing space are removed from being the one ones to have responded to the requests for masting made by the bulk unions regionally: Young Farmers and FDSEA. This motion was noticed virtually all over the place within the countryside of this traditionally pro-European area. In 1992, Brittany massively defended the Treaty of Maastricht (Netherlands), not like the remainder of France. This attachment to the EU was additional verified in 2005, throughout the referendum on the European Constitution. In the corridors of Parliament in Brussels, many wish to hail Brittany as one of many areas that has “saved” the establishment at essential moments in its historical past.

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