The expectations of French farmers and ranchers were not very high, but the programmatic speech of the new Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, in the National Assembly yesterday, 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 during the next few hours. In some of the eight roadblocks on the motorways leading to Paris, there was already a debate as to whether it was necessary to move closer to the capital to increase the pressure on the Government and public opinion.
Attal, with flowery rhetoric, once again sang the praises of French agriculture and livestock while formulating the measures already announced on Friday. It is true that the prime minister presented some additional ones, such as an emergency fund for wine growers in the southern region of Occitania and an acceleration of the payment of European aid and other subsidies. The problem is that farmers are asking for more.
The conflict will probably stall, at least until Thursday’s extraordinary European summit in Brussels, in which Macron plans to bet hard to get concessions such as the categorical rejection of the signing of the free trade treaty with Mercosur and a curb on imports of Ukrainian poultry meat, in addition to relaxations of phytosanitary rules, on fallow and others.
The police continue to be very permissive with the protest, even though they gave a warning. At least twice, officers blocked a convoy of tractors from Agen in the Olt-i-Garonne, one of the focus areas of the movement, because they said they were heading to the central market of Rungis, south of Paris. to block it. This is a red line that the Government does not intend to tolerate. The convoy, still hundreds of kilometers from the capital, evaded 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 for the long-term unemployed and for juvenile offenders and their parents, who will have to do community service for their responsibility in their children’s crimes.
The Prime Minister said that a premium will be paid to school nurses and that an attempt will be made, in general, to raise wages above the legal minimum. Regarding healthcare, an emissary will be created to look for doctors abroad to alleviate the shortage in France.
Attal harshly attacked the extreme right, a major rival in the European elections in June, and accused it of seeking “a Frexit in disguise” (French exit from the EU) asking not to apply the European treaties. The prime minister said that this would do enormous harm to France.
The head of government defended the balance sheet of his predecessors and President Macron since 2017, especially the net creation of industrial employment, which had not happened 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 openly assuming your homosexuality”, he emphasized.
The radical left didn’t even wait until 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 in many years”.
