“We need clear lines”, assures the president of the FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau before his meeting with Gabriel Attal

Le président de la FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau. Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON

As the farmers' movement gains momentum, the national president of the FNSEA will be received this Monday at the end of the day by the Prime Minister. Before his meeting with Gabriel Attal, Arnaud Rousseau shares his expectations with us.

What do you expect from your meeting with the Prime Minister ?

I am waiting for the Prime Minister to hear the framework in which this crisis is unfolding, I do not believe that he is very specialist in agricultural issues. I would like to tell him the reality of the agricultural situation in our country. I will of course ask him that a certain number of major European and French issues be put on the table so that solutions can be found.

What are these topics?

There are three issues: the recognition and dignity of the agricultural world, income and competitiveness of the agricultural world, the exercise of the profession of farmer with a precise point on which has hampered and despaired farmers for too many years. 

In the short term, what measure should Gabriel Attal announce ?

The anger that is expressed is the glass that overflows. We are not waiting for a single symbolic measure, there is a string of measures on which we are waiting for the government. I could talk to you about simplification, constraints, standards, taxation, compensation that we always expect in certain sectors, which we are told about and which never arrives. We are no longer at the emblem stage, we are in overflow. When there is an overflow, all subjects must be purged.

The topics are largely European.

Absolutely, they are European, and in the medium term. We intend for them to be processed before the upcoming Agricultural Show. Marc Fesneau tells us “I try, I can't do it”. I do not agree with this, it is not tenable. We must move forward now, the President of the Republic must go to Brussels and bang his fist on the table to say that it is not tenable to make 4% fallow, repeat that this is not It is not tenable to overinterpret all the directives related to wetlands, it is not tenable to crush farmers with unfair regulations, I could obviously multiply the examples. We want answers, clear lines, with the deadline for the Agricultural Show.

While knowing that social time is not political time… Will the farmers be patient ?

We are responsible and lucid people. On the 4% fallows, we know that the meeting of European leaders will take a few days, but on simplification, it can happen very quickly. Our ambition is to write a platform of clear demands so as not to forget anything, we would not want it to be a flash in the pan. We all remember that the episode of the "Yellow Vests" didn't lead to much. 

Can your meeting with the Prime Minister change the situation ?

Don't imagine that anger will subside because I am meeting the Prime Minister at his request. It is the terrain that rules, the terrain rumbles, the evil is deep. 

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