French farmers are on the verge of revolting again

A French MP was apprehended by police in Paris last week as he bought 1.35 grams of the designer drug ‘3-MMC’ from a teenager dealer. Andy Kerbrat, who is a member of the far-left La France Insoumise, admitted this on Tuesday and confessed to being addicted.

The reaction from most MPs was largely sympathetic. He’s not the first parliamentarian to have admitted his use of narcotics. Last year Emmanuel Pellerin, a member of Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party, confessed to cocaine use and a senator was arrested by police after he was accused of drugging a female MP as part of a plan to carry out a sexual assault (he has denied any wrongdoing).

In the wake of that allegation, the MP Caroline Janvier spoke of the culture of excess within the National Assembly, claiming ‘there are evenings when drugs are circulating’. Heavy drinking was also common and Janvier concluded that ‘politics manufactures deviant behaviour’.

One of the few politicians to take Kerbrat to task was Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau. He declared: ‘At a time when narco-banditry is taking hold in France, with all its attendant violence, it is intolerable to see a member of the French parliament buying synthetic drugs from a street dealer.’

Intolerable, but probably not surprising, certainly for the majority of the French, who have come to regard their political class with weary contempt. Emmanuel Macron heads the unpopularity stakes – a poll last week found that he is disliked by 78 per cent of the country – but the gulf between parliament and the people is now dangerously wide. 

‘The French people’s distrust of politicians and their institutions is not simply a rejection of a President who does as he pleases,’ explained Bruno Cautrès, a political scientist who conducted a poll in late August to determine the extent of the gulf. ‘The French National Assembly reinforces this idea of a political world set apart from the rest.’

The poll found that 73 per cent of the electorate have no confidence in parliament.

This sentiment of sullen resentment is particularly acute within the agricultural sector. It was they who set the tone for this turbulent year in France by launching a nationwide protest movement in January. Hundreds of farmers descended on Paris in their tractors, to be held at bay on the outskirts of the capital by a thin blue line of police and gendarmes.

Macron and his prime minister at the time, Gabriel Attal, promised the farmers that they were on their side. Trust us, they said, there will be financial aid and a commitment to ensure that the EU passes no trade deals that would be detrimental to French agriculture.

The farmers claim these promises have not been met. They are particularly incensed at the news that the EU is set to sign a trade deal next month with the Mercosur common market (which includes Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia) at the G20 summit in Rio.

The deal has been nearly 25 years in the making but an agreement is pending, one which will open up the protectionist South American bloc to European exports, particularly cars and machinery. This would be wonderful for German industry. In return, the Mercosur deal would enable South Americans to ship more beef, wine and cereals to Europe. This would be disastrous for French agriculture. 

The industry is already reeling from one of the most ruinous years in living memory. Record rainfall resulted in the worst wheat harvest in 40 years: 26.3 million tonnes compared to 35.1 million tonnes in 2023. France produces and exports the most wheat in the EU.

The inclement weather had also taken its toll on wine makers, with some facing losses of 60 per cent. Burgundy has been hit particularly hard by rain, hail and frost.

There have been animal epidemics and the rain has returned this month to threaten winter wheat sowing. Morale is shattered.

The main farming union, FNSEA, this week warned the French government that the Mercosur deal is a ‘red line’. Cross it, and the response from the farmers will be swift and substantial. There have been in recent days a series of uncoordinated actions from farmers across the country, but FNSEA has called on its members to launch a sustained protest on November 15, three days before the start of the G20 summit in Brazil.

Many farmers, however, regard their unions as they do their politicians: with disdain and distrust. ‘If the movement starts up again, it will start without the unions,’ said one farmer recently. ‘And then it will be uncontrollable.’