Petition against the Duplomb law: more than 800,000 signatures, "it doesn't inspire much in me" reacts the senator who originated the text

From 500,000, and if the signatures come from at least 30 overseas departments or communities, the Conference of Presidents of the Assembly may decide to organize a debate in public session. But only the petition will be debated. The law will not be reexamined on its merits, much less possibly repealed. No petition has yet been debated in the chamber in the history of the Fifth Republic.

This news hardly pleases Laurent Duplomb, the LR senator who initiated the bill. "It doesn't inspire much in me, it means that the opposition is speaking out," he said on FranceInfo this Sunday. "Behind it, there will surely be a debate organized in the National Assembly to say what we've been saying for six months."

The senator from Haute-Loire points out that "70% of senators and 60% of deputies" voted for the Duplomb law . "It is the law of Parliament and will become law if it is promulgated by the President of the Republic."

One of the points of contention concerns the reintroduction, by way of derogation and under conditions, of acetamiprid , a pesticide from the neonicotinoid family, banned in France but authorized in Europe. A measure presented by the petition as "a scientific, ethical, environmental and health aberration."

But Laurent Duplomb, who is also a farmer, assures that "the director general of ANSES [Editor's note: the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety] clearly stated during the hearing that the decision to ban had not been taken under the guise of a scientific study."

According to the senator, France is "putting farmers in unfair competition" with its European neighbours "since they will be able to continue using products that will allow them to have a form of economic profitability and yields."