French Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau has decided to postpone the introduction of a farm sector reform bill due to be presented this week, amid mass protests by farmers across the country.
Marc Fesneau said on Sunday that he would postpone the introduction of the bill to resolve some legal issues, he told the Grand Jury programme. The aim is for lawmakers to debate the bill “in the first term of 2024”. He said:
The bill was due to be presented next week. To add some regulatory measures – there are still legal issues that need to be raised – let’s give ourselves a few weeks.
For weeks, French farmers have been expressing outrage over rising prices, pesticide bans and other regulations that they say mean they face unfair competition from other countries that do not follow strict standards.
Another issue is the price of diesel, which was one of the causes of the Yellow Vest protests in 2018, and the government wants to make sure farmers’ protests don’t turn into a similar movement.
On Saturday, the new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal recalled his support for the bill to facilitate the resumption of agricultural operations. He claimed:
We need to remove the obstacles that prevent (young people) from settling down and facilitate transmission.
On Sunday, the mobilisation of Occitan farmers continued, the A64 motorway near Toulouse was closed for the fourth consecutive day, and a filter dam had to be installed on the national road in Ariège. In recent months, the latter have stepped up their actions in order to obtain from the State the emergency allocation of significant aid, especially in the face of rising fuel prices and cattle disease.
