“A dangerous and retrograde text”: thousands of opponents of the Duplomb law mobilized this weekend

Farmers, NGOs, scientists... Thousands of opponents of the proposed Duplomb agricultural law gathered across France this weekend to demand the cancellation of this bill, which is to be examined by the joint committee on Monday.

This commission, which will bring together 14 senators and deputies, will be responsible for finding a compromise text, after a tactical rejection aimed at circumventing a wall of amendments from the ecologists and the rebels.

"This is an anti-democratic coup to pass this law, which represents a radical regression" for both the environment and public health, as well as a "denial of the scientific facts on the dangers of pesticides," declared the Scientists in Rebellion committee, present on Sunday on the Esplanade des Invalides in Paris.

According to the Nourrir collective, which brings together dozens of environmental protection NGOs (Greenpeace, WWF, Générations Futures, etc.), which initiated the call for the weekend mobilization, including the Confédération paysanne, the CGT, and Cancer Colère, around a thousand people gathered in Paris and 10,000 over the entire weekend in 60 cities, including Creil (Oise), Cherbourg (Manche), and Strasbourg, it said in a press release on Sunday evening.

The bill by LR Senator Laurent Duplomb is presented as intended to "remove constraints" on farmers . It notably provides for the reintroduction of the pesticide acetamiprid (a neonicotinoid that is highly toxic, particularly for pollinators and natural environments), but also measures facilitating water storage or the expansion of intensive livestock farms, as well as a redefinition of the work of ANSES.

"No, farmers are not behind this law, which in no way addresses the difficulties facing the agricultural world" and "goes against the general interest," chanted Stéphane Galais, spokesperson for the Confédération paysanne and a cattle breeder in Brittany, from the Parisian podium, amid banners reading "Duplomb law, poison law."

"The Duplomb law is dangerous and retrograde," Xavier Fromont, the union's spokesperson for the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, also insisted on Sunday during a gathering of 600 people dressed in yellow and black in Puy-en-Velay, Senator Duplomb's stronghold.

The day before in Pau, the hometown of Prime Minister François Bayrou, around a hundred people had chanted "our health will not be sold off," while holding a large black tarpaulin. "This is an irresponsible and culpable law," Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, president of the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) in Paris, said on Sunday.

"Ladies and gentlemen of parliament, pull yourselves together. Your responsibility is to protect the French population, not the interests of a few," added the representative of France Nature Environnement (FNE), calling for "the outright rejection of the bill." The NGOs have already declared themselves ready to "go to court" if this law is enacted. The mobilization will continue this Monday at 11:30 a.m. in Paris, with a farmers' banquet near the Senate.