Special envoy to Montastruc-de-Salies
Sixteen days after settling in Matignon, half of which he faced a national movement of anger from farmers, Gabriel Attal knew that by addressing them on Friday, he had no room for error . So, it was on a farm in Montastruc-de-Salies (Haute-Garonne), in the heart of Occitanie, where the On Marche sur la tête movement began quietly in November, that the Prime Minister proclaimed “ the day of the start” of French agriculture. To put an end to the first major crisis he has to manage, the head of government promised “something concrete, something solid”. In this town of 300 inhabitants at the foot of the Pyrenees, where the voters of Jean Lassalle (15.84%) are on familiar terms with those of Jean-Luc Mélenchon (26.70%) and Emmanuel Macron (20.81%), Gabriel Attal presented his range of measures that he concocted with his ministers, including Marc Fesneau (Agriculture) and Christophe Béchu (Ecology), present with him. Cancellation of the increase in non-road agricultural diesel, “simplification shock”, capping of administrative controls, opening of a window to support farms affected by epizootic haemorrhagic disease, putting pressure on agri-food manufacturers, European negotiations to reviewing fallow standards, relaxing water management projects, calling into question standards “which make no sense”… “Message received five out of five. I heard you (…), no one knows better than you how to do your job. We must unlock, liberate, simplify. And let our farmers breathe,” said the head of government, surrounded by a handful of attentive farmers around bales of straw. “We are going to act on all fronts: standards, simplification, Europe, taxation, labor remuneration. (…) We are going to fight all together,” proclaimed Gabriel Attal in a framework carefully concocted by Matignon to avoid clashes.
Until the end, the terms of the Prime Minister’s visit were kept secret by a feverish communications team. The breeder of 250 cattle Ludovic Calvet received the same morning the call from Matignon announcing the imminent visit of the Prime Minister. “I thought it was a joke,” said this protester as he welcomed the press to his farm facing the mountains. Like many of his colleagues, the man, who struggles to pay himself a salary, “hoped” to be convinced by the new head of government.
Despite Gabriel Attal’s conciliatory words towards them throughout the week, the farmers waited for the Prime Minister without promising to decree the end of the movement too easily. “You shouldn’t just do communication in life. You have to prove it. He comes to meet us, it’s respectable, but for him to be respected he must keep his commitments,” warned the same morning on BFMTV the leader of this spontaneous movement, Jérôme Bayle, from a blocking point of the region. While the movement was still gaining in intensity, since tractors began to surround Paris, Gabriel Attal was expected Friday evening at a dam, in Carbonne, in Haute-Garonne. In the meantime, the prime minister spent twenty-five minutes on the phone to the face of the protest. “He is aware of what I expect from him,” he confided a little later in Montastruc-de-Salies, where he had traveled to meet Gabriel Attal. “We said things to each other. Afterwards, we will see, we wait until the end of the match” to decide on the continuation of the movement, explained Jérôme Bayle, thick beard and yellow cap. At the end of the Prime Minister’s speech, the leader of the revolt in Haute-Garonne announced that he was lifting his blockade on the A64.
Since the start of the protest, the executive has been walking on eggshells. The day before, on TF1, Gérald Darmanin assumed a certain lack of control in the face of blockages. “We do not respond to suffering by sending CRS,” said the Minister of the Interior. In his eyes, “farmers have the right to claim” their suffering. Even if it means closing 400 kilometers of highways in the south of the country. “There is healthy anger but no justified violence,” however, qualified the Prime Minister as the tone rose during certain gatherings. At the end of yet another ministerial meeting, Bruno Le Maire – who was not present in Montastruc-de-Salies – announced increased vigilance by the State regarding compliance with the EGalim law, passed during the previous five-year term to guarantee a fair price to farmers. The Minister of the Economy “will only give” agri-food manufacturers “a few days to comply with the law, failing which they will be fined up to 2% of their turnover,” he said. he rocks.
With his feet in the ground and straw, 1,200 kilometers from Brussels, Gabriel Attal certified to the operators of the department that he wants to “protect our heritage and our identity” and oppose “contradictory injunctions”. He promises to “protect against unfair competition” so contested by farmers, emphasizing France’s opposition to the signing of the trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur.
A month before the Agricultural Show and especially five months before the European elections, the urban prime minister did not skimp on gestures of appeasement before strolling among the gray-coated Gascon women of the Pyrenees. Time is running out for the thirty-year-old. If the protest was not closed at the end of the weekend, it is his general policy declaration next Tuesday that risks being eclipsed. Surely he didn’t imagine being plunged so quickly into Matignon’s hell.
