Petition against Duplomb law nears one million signatures

Launched by a student on July 10, the petition was approaching 900,000 signatures by early afternoon.

Once the threshold of 500,000 signatures, reached on Saturday, and provided they come from at least 30 overseas departments or communities, the Conference of Presidents of the National Assembly may decide to organize a debate in public session. However, the law will not be reexamined in substance, let alone possibly repealed.

National Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet said on Franceinfo that she was "in favor" of organizing such a debate. But it "will under no circumstances reverse the law passed," which, according to her, will "save a certain number of our farmers."

The bill's author, Republican Senator Laurent Duplomb, also believes this unprecedented debate will take place. But he is concerned about "unfair competition" for farmers if the bill, which allows for the reintroduction of a pesticide banned in France but authorized in Europe, is not implemented.

No petition has ever been debated in the hemicycle in the history of the Fifth Republic.

The text by 23-year-old student Eléonore Pattery has generated unprecedented enthusiasm, widely shared on social media by figures such as Pierre Niney and left-wing MPs. The pace of signatures accelerated this weekend.

"Relinquish promulgating it"

The President and Prime Minister "must listen to the public's anger against this law being passed. They must abandon its promulgation," wrote Manuel Bompard, coordinator of La France Insoumise, on X on Sunday.

Opponents and supporters of the law, who had been strongly mobilized during its examination, have once again expressed their disagreements.

All left-wing parties called for this debate to take place on Saturday. "In the face of lobbies, there are millions of us: ecology is fighting back," Marine Tondelier, head of the Ecologists, had declared on X.

Conversely, Arnaud Rousseau, the head of the FNSEA, the leading agricultural union, which strongly supports the Duplomb law, believes that French agriculture will "disappear" if it is imposed "higher standards" than those of its European neighbors.

This law "is a scientific, ethical, environmental and health aberration," the student writes in her petition.

Adopted on July 8 by Parliament, it provides in particular for the reintroduction, by way of derogation and under conditions, of acetamiprid, a pesticide from the neonicotinoid family, banned in France but authorized in Europe.

This product is in demand by beet and hazelnut producers, who believe they have no alternative to combat pests and are subject to unfair competition.

On the contrary, beekeepers warn of "a bee killer".

Its effects on humans are also a source of concern, even if the risks remain uncertain due to a lack of large-scale studies.

The petition also calls for "a democratic review of the conditions under which the Duplomb law was adopted."

In Parliament, it had indeed had a rushed path with a preliminary motion of rejection, tabled by its own rapporteur Julien Dive (LR), who was in favor of the text. The MP justified this by denouncing the "obstruction" of the left, which had tabled several thousand amendments.

The lack of real debate in the chamber is one of the arguments put forward by left-wing MPs who filed an appeal on 11 July before the Constitutional Council, hoping for its censure on procedural grounds, which could prevent its promulgation.

This possibility of petitions on the Assembly's website, which dates back to 2019, is an example of "participatory democracy that could shift the lines," believes constitutional expert Anne-Charlène Bezzina, who raises the possibility for the President of the Republic to delay the promulgation of the law by requesting a second deliberation in Parliament.

In the meantime, the petition "puts political pressure" on the deputies, underlines his colleague Benjamin Morel.