In a new tense session, the National Assembly adopted on the night of Monday to Tuesday July 21 the agricultural emergency law, and the possibility of reintroducing certain pesticides in an exceptional manner, a provision which brought to light in the chamber the differences between the government and part of its troops. Clearly approved in the end in the Assembly, with 296 votes against 224, the text is only one compliant vote from the Senate to be definitively adopted in Parliament, late Tuesday afternoon.
This should be a formality, since one of the most important achievements for senators was maintained in the joint committee, then during the vote in the Assembly: the possibility given to ANSES to reintroduce by way of exemption and under conditions two pesticides banned in France but authorized in the European Union.
The two molecules concerned, acetamiprid and flupyradifurone, could thus be used for a handful of sectors in difficulty. However, a year after the strong citizen mobilization against the Duplomb law, which provided for the return of acetamiprid before censorship by the Constitutional Council, deputies from the government camp suggested on Monday to the government to have it withdrawn by amendment, ahead of a meeting in Matignon.
” Incomprehension “
They argued that Sébastien Lecornu had himself called for not introducing a measure on acetamiprid into the agricultural law that he himself had put in place. End of refusal from the entourage of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, for whom “the ban (of acetamiprid) remains the principle” in the text and who had left “to Parliament” the task of “deciding” or “developing” the text.
But when Renaissance deputies, including former Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, from the MoDem, and from the Liot group tabled their own deletion amendment, the government, which has a right of veto at this stage of the procedure, opposed their examination. A decision which gave rise to a ludicrous session, where MoDem and Renaissance deputies denounced in the hemicycle the attitude of the government they support. “This filtering is arbitrary and contrary to the democratic spirit,” criticized Richard Ramos (MoDem).
Gabriel Attal, head of the party and of the Renaissance group, deplored a session “rotten by a form of incomprehension”: “why (…) was it said that the Assembly could decide on this subject? And this evening, without any explanation from the government, we finally learn that this is not the case? “. An EPR executive who attended the debates claims that the former prime minister tried several times to contact Sébastien Lecornu by telephone, but without obtaining a response.
Resignation in the balance?
On the podium and then on the benches, the Minister of Agriculture Annie Genevard (LR) called not to reject a text which “provides concrete and expected answers to our farmers”, because of a single article on pesticides. The fact remains that the measure divides the government, with the Minister of Ecological Transition Monique Barbut personally opposed to the reintroduction of acetamiprid.
In the event of final adoption of the text with exceptional reintroduction of the two pesticides, the scenario of his resignation is on the table, according to his entourage. “We focus on a subject because we have totemized it (…) it is not the politician who decides, it is Anses, which is based on science,” the rapporteur Julien Dive (LR) said in front of the press. Without convincing the left.
“The Order of Physicians, sixteen learned and medical societies have declared that that’s it, we must ban these pesticides,” retorted the Insoumise Aurélie Trouvé. The socialist Mélanie Thomin estimated that the drafting of the text would lead to “putting scientists under supervision”.
Almost the entire left voted against the text, but did not carry enough weight in the face of the combined voices of the National Rally and two-thirds of the government camp who voted for it. Rebels, socialists and ecologists have all announced that they would refer the matter to the Constitutional Council in the event of final adoption of the text on Tuesday in the Senate.
On the side of French society, positions are just as fractured. The environmental association Générations Futures denounced “the deadly turn of the Senate”, concerning the reintroduction of banned pesticides. For its part, the FNSEA welcomed in a press release “a major turning point” with the adoption of the text and “an awareness of the critical situation that Ferme France is going through today”.
