“It has become a ritual of the Republic”: how politicians are increasingly inviting themselves to the Agricultural Show

Carole Delga accompagnée de près par Gabriel Attal. MIDI LIBRE – Y. PO.

Omniprésents lors de la rencontre avec le monde viticole et la ruralité, les politiques ont phagocyté cette 60e édition. Au point que les organisateurs pensent "repenser leur accueil".  

Mayors by the hundreds, presidents and departmental elected officials from all over France, cohorts of regional elected officials, many parliamentarians, behind their party leaders or in contact with producers in their constituencies and then the ;elite of national politics… At the Agricultural Show, you have to be seen and elected officials want to be in the forefront. "It’has become a ritual of the Republic, if we don’t go there it would be badly taken by the agricultural world. It’s a consensual show, before you had to show up at the car show, but almost no one goes there anymore. Not green enough. And then, agriculture is the roots of France", explains political scientist Michel Crespy.

This is the moment chosen to have a drink with the winegrowers, eat a little local charcuterie and express all the love they have for the agricultural world in crisis and the rural territories so often neglected. to bad elsewhere…

Political battle

This is not new but the interference of politics has gone up a notch this year. However, the Prime Minister himself warned: "The Agricultural Show is neither a media circus, nor a political circus, nor a circus activist". Even if we can doubt it, Gabriel Attal was invited to the surprise of the organizers the day after the big ruckus caused by the presence of Emmanuel Macron. And the day Jordan Bardella came, received much more favorably by "local decision-makers from the Rural Coordination engaged in a very official manner in the National Rally", estimated President Macron in an interview with Le Figaro. Because the Salon is also a place of political battle, even a standoff, a place of tensions… 

At the 60th International Agricultural Show (SIA), politics was everywhere. The trip of the president of the Occitanie Region, Carole Delga, on Tuesday, even had to be made up of the prestigious, although sometimes cumbersome, presence of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal…

"A complicated first day"

However, with 83 official visits, a broken record, adjustments had to be made. And  the Salon, through the voice of its representatives, had to make a clarification when taking stock by emphasizing "the need to rethink the organization of their reception for the ;#39;future". A direct reference to the delayed opening on Saturday after the invasion of 400 farmers who came to disrupt the stroll of the President of the Republic. "It’was a very complicated first day, we lost quite a few visitors. The fear was that it would disrupt the entire show, but that didn't happen", said relieved Jérôme Despey, administrator of Ceneca which organizes the show and president of the Hérault chamber of agriculture.

The presence of politicians has sometimes disrupted the operation of the Salon: "It has often been necessary to rearrange the routes at the last moment, this is very heavy. We will think about establishing rules so that this does not hinder visits by the general public, continues Jérôme Despey.

This is also the SIA, a public square "very followed by the media. It's the place where we send messages by caressing rurality, even if this has almost no impact on the electoral level anymore. ;, underlines Michel Crespy. Because after their passage, the politicians left the agricultural world where it was when they arrived…