French prime minister tries to placate farmers

• Gabriel Attal says a new law on income ready by the summer

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal tried to ease tensions with farmers on Wednesday by outlining the implementation of measures announced in February and promising a new law to better safeguard their income.

Attal made the announcement in a speech before this weekend’s annual Salon de l’Agriculture farming trade fair.

While some local grievances vary, farmers’ protests seen in other European countries including Belgium, Greece and Germany have exposed tensions over the effect on farming of an EU drive to fight climate change and the opening of the door to cheap Ukrainian imports to help Kyiv’s war effort.

In France, farmers largely suspended weeks of protests that included blocking highways after Attal on February 1 promised new measures.

But the farmers say they are not being paid enough and are choked by taxes, green rules and face unfair competition from abroad, and have been pressing the government to show the first results of the emergency measures before the trade fair.

“We heard the farmers’ call. We made commitments, we are keeping them,” Attal told reporters.

President Emmanuel Macron and his government are wary of farmers’ growing support for the far right ahead of European parliament elections in June.

The new Egalim law, designed to guarantee fair prices at the farm gate and strengthen the position of farmers in negotiations with retailers and consumer goods makers, will be ready by the summer, Attal said. It will aim at ensuring the price-fixing system starts from farmers, improve production cost indicators and ensure European purchasing bodies comply, he said.

Controls on the application of the current Egalim law showed two European purchasing bodies had not complied and were facing sanctions of tens of millions of euros, finance minister Bruno Le Maire said.

Attal announced an exemption from this year of contributions for nearly all seasonal agricultural workers, mainly used in fruit picking, and said it would be easier for them to get temporary visas. A specific plan for livestock breeders, who were particularly suffering from a drop in income, would be presented at the farm show.

A government source said the budget for the agriculture relief plan remained €400m, despite new measures.

/Reuters Delivery: French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal says the government has heard the farmers’ demands. ‘We made commitments, we are keeping them,’ he says.