Duplomb Law: in joint committee, RN and Macronists hand in hand to acknowledge ecological setbacks

Macronist parliamentarians have therefore decided to join the union of the right and the far right to pass a text dangerous for the environment and health. This Monday, June 30, the joint committee (CMP) in the Senate, composed of seven deputies and seven senators, adopted most of the ecocidal provisions of the "Duplomb" bill , decried on the left but also by a part of the farming world. The socialist and rebellious elected officials were no match for the alliance of the RN, LR, centrists and Macronists, the CMP adopting this version with 10 votes to 4. A habit for Macronie. During the last budget discussions, this same bloc had voted against the revenue component proposed by the left, including the increase in taxation on super profits and super dividends .

The final review of this text will take place on July 2 and 8. "With this text, we don't hear the scientists, we don't hear the warnings from science, we don't hear the warnings from the climate," lamented environmentalist Benoît Biteau, present at the CMP.

In detail, on neonicotinoids , it is the version put forward by the senator from Haute-Loire, Laurent Duplomb (LR), who initiated the text, that was adopted. The measure provides that not only acetamiprid – from the neonicotinoid family – be reauthorized, but also seeds coated with this insecticide. A serious measure, given that it is an insecticide – banned in France since 2018 – which promotes cancer according to at least two experimental studies.

Called for by beet and hazelnut producers, this chemical is also described as a "bee killer" by beekeepers. Slight adjustments were made in the CMP, such as a "review clause" after three years of reintroduction, or a ban on planting plants that attract pollinators in previously treated areas.

Other measures included in the Senate version were approved by the Joint Committee, such as those favorable to the meat industry. The easing of authorization procedures for the construction of livestock buildings and the raising of environmental authorization thresholds for intensive livestock farming were approved. The facilitation of water storage, including with mega-basins , for crop irrigation was also approved. However, on the subject of ANSES, a Senate measure aimed at increasing the government's influence in the work on pesticide authorizations was withdrawn.

On the day of the CMP discussions, hundreds of people gathered near the Senate to protest against the unraveling of environmental standards at a "peasant banquet." Nicolas Verzotti, a farmer in Vaucluse, reminded everyone, contrary to the rhetoric of the right and the extreme, that "environmental standards are not a scandal, they do not prevent me from doing my job but protect me . " The RN, LR and Macronists decided otherwise.