The expectations of French farmers and ranchers were not very high, but the programmatic speech of the new Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, yesterday in the National Assembly, was even more disappointing than expected. They did not see clear or sufficient answers to the structural problems of the field.
The reaction of the agricultural unions was to continue the protest and even expand it in the coming hours. In some of the eight blocking points on the access highways to Paris, there were already discussions about moving closer to the capital to increase pressure on the Government and public opinion.
Attal, with flowery rhetoric, once again sang the praises of French agriculture and livestock, while reformulating measures already announced last Friday. It is true that the prime minister presented some additional ones, such as an emergency fund for winegrowers in the southern region of Occitania and an acceleration of the payment of European aid and other subsidies. The problem is that farmers ask for more.
The conflict will probably stagnate, at least until the extraordinary European summit on Thursday in Brussels, in which Macron plans to bet heavily on achieving concessions such as the categorical rejection of the signing of the free trade agreement with Mercosur and a stop to meat imports. of Ukrainian poultry, in addition to relaxations of phytosanitary standards, fallow and others.
The police continue to be very permissive with the protest, although they gave a warning. On at least two occasions the agents blocked the way to a convoy of tractors coming from Agen, in Lot-et-Garonne, one of the centers of the movement, because they openly said that they were heading to the central market of Rungis, south of Paris, to block it. That is a red line that the Government does not intend to tolerate. The convoy, still hundreds of kilometers from the capital, avoided the police through secondary roads and moved slowly. It is unlikely that he will achieve his goal of encircling Rungis.
In his program, Attal presented tough measures with the long-term unemployed and with juvenile delinquents and their parents, who must carry out community work for their responsibility in the crimes of their children.
The prime minister said a bonus will be paid to school nurses and efforts will generally be made to raise salaries above the legal minimum. Regarding health, an emissary will be created to look for doctors abroad to alleviate their lack in France.
Attal harshly attacked the extreme right, a great rival in the European elections in June, and reproached it for seeking “a disguised Frexit” (French abandonment of the EU) by asking not to apply the European treaties. The premier said that would do enormous damage to France.
The head of Government defended the balance of his predecessors and President Macron since 2017, especially the net creation of industrial employment, which had not occurred for 30 years. Attal dared to refer to himself and expressed pride. “To be French, in 2024, is to be able to be prime minister by openly accepting his homosexuality,” he highlighted.
The radical left did not even wait for the beginning of Attal’s speech to present a motion of censure, which will be voted on at the end of the week, and after his intervention they criticized it for being, according to them, the most reactionary program in many years.
