Farmers’ protests are France’s first EU campaign battleground

Road blockades across the country and growing exasperation from farmers are shaping up to be the first major political test for EU election candidates in France, as they attempt to court the agricultural community.

For the past week, farmers’ protests have dominated the media and political cycle in France, as anger mounts over low wages, unfair third-country competition and the weight of complex regulations that hold farmers back from actually working their land.

Emotions have been further fuelled by the death of a woman during the protest on Tuesday after a car hit the roadblock.

“You work the ground with knowledge, not in front of a screen,” slogans read across the country, as the farming community – not just in France, but across the EU too – blames political leaders for their disconnection with rural life, and claim pro-environment legislation is at odds with their daily realities.

Such backlash from the agricultural industry is growing into the first real-life EU elections battleground, as the campaign gets off on an early start.

“The campaign is up and going, and there’s no stopping it,” a pro-Macron advisor, asking to remain anonymous, told Euractiv, with risks it becomes “a golden ticket for the extreme right”.

Farmers back on political scene, putting pressure on governments

From France to Poland and Germany, tractors are taking to the streets, raising fears among national governments that farmers, usually seen as a more conservative part of the electorate, may become a potential voting pool for the far right.

Patience and calm

Farmers’ organisations have been turning up the heat on the French government, demanding the newly-instated prime minister Gabriel Attal get things moving in Brussels, a month before the renowned International Agricultural Show is set to start in Paris.

The government is treading a fine line. It cannot be seen to endorse an anti-EU, anti-Green Deal narrative – and yet it must not come across as deaf to farmers’ pressing demands, with fears that a ‘Gilets Jaunes’ movement may repeat.

So far, they seem to be erring on the side of patience and calm.

“We ought to hear and understand the source of the anger,” France’s agriculture minister Marc Fesneau is quoted as saying in Le Monde, adding that he’s committed to coming up with a set of announcements by the weekend.

Attal, meanwhile, is meeting with all trade unions. “We will take all helpful and necessary measures,” he told the National Assembly on Tuesday (23 January).

Jérémy Decerle, a pro-Macron Renaissance EU lawmaker, told Euractiv: “We ought to enter into a constructive, pragmatic and rational phase, focused on finding solutions.”

It’s not about pointing fingers, or scapegoating EU decision-making, the lawmaker, also a farmer, said – but instead taking the time to listen and come up with sound proposals.

As farmer protests continue, EU Commission's dialogue slammed as 'too late'

With the European Commission’s ‘strategic dialogue’ between policymakers, farmers and agriculture stakeholders due to start on Thursday (25 January), agriculture ministers on Tuesday said the initiative is coming too late.

“Macron’s Europe”

However, not all are on board with the calm and temperate approach.

In a Figaro oped, French conservative lead man François-Xavier Bellamy slammed the Commission’s alleged “degrowth” agenda as being so tainted by environmental concerns that output is bound to fall.

“This is Macron’s Europe,” far-right Rassemblement national (RN) candidate Jordan Bardella added over the weekend. He claimed his role was to be a “whistleblower for the French to see what really is happening inside the European Commission”, and has called for a “convergence of anger” against Macron’s government, as the fishing industry also starts to take to the streets.

While his attacks against EU policy, especially the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), are riddled with fake news and false allegations, in this febrile environment they could just be enough to crystallise the ‘disconnection narrative’ between farmers and so-called eurocrats.

The far right has a big card to play – and French farmers’ voting data shows the RN is not the favourite ticket. A 2022 research paper found only 25% of farmers cast a far-right vote in the first round of the 2022 presidential elections – up 17% in the past decade, but still a far cry from overwhelming support.

In the end, conservative and radical right-wing forces are gaining ground, and risk bringing the government with them, Thierry Chopin, special advisor to the Jacques Delors Institute, told Euractiv.

“The far right sets the tone for the debate by honing in on three clear dimensions on which it has always thrived: socio-economic, with the loss of farmers’ purchasing power; political, by reinforcing the urban/rural divide and the anti-elite narrative ; and identity, where agriculture is associated with a culturally ‘traditional’ way of life,” he said.

Could Macron’s conservative turn drag EU elections into a national-only campaign?

French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to defend a “sovereign Europe” ahead of European elections in June, but his recent conservative turn and willingness to mirror the far-right’s rhetoric on issues of identity and immigration may derail his campaign away from key EU matters.

Full CAP reform

Meanwhile, left-wing forces are struggling to get their voices heard.

“We were the only ones vocal against the EU-New Zealand trade deal,” Manon Aubry, The Left group co-president told Euractiv. “It’s annoying that we’re proven to be right, now that reality hits.”

She wants a full CAP reform, the end to all trade deals, and fair pay for all. “All parties are just so incredibly hypocritical: they vote in favour of the CAP, then act shocked when farmers protest.”

The Greens have a similar take too – it’s high time EU agricultural policy goes through a significant overhaul, lead candidate Marie Toussaint said on Tuesday, calling for extra pressure to be put on the ‘agrobusiness’.

The left is constrained to think on their feet – polling data shows support is dwindling, not helped by Attal’s relentless finger-pointing in the hope of gaining support from farmers.

Ultimately, in this political context, “a right-wing narrative shift is likely”, Laurent Warlouzet, an EU scholar, told Euractiv, adding that the only way things can improve is if “we remain nuanced and critical against simplistic accusations”.

As the campaign gets properly underway, this may be easier said than done.

[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]

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