French lawmakers are set to vote on Monday evening on an emergency agriculture bill that has reopened deep divisions within the country's political landscape. The legislation, whose final version was approved by a joint parliamentary committee last Thursday, includes a contentious provision to reintroduce two pesticides—acetamiprid and flupyradifurone—that are banned in France but authorised elsewhere in the European Union.
The bill, which contains 78 articles, is designed to provide urgent support to struggling agricultural sectors. However, the pesticide clause has become a flashpoint, pitting environmental concerns against the demands of farmers who argue that these chemicals are essential for competitiveness.
Government Coalition Under Strain
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu convened a meeting at Matignon on Monday with representatives from the governing coalition—Renaissance, MoDem, Horizons, and Les Républicains (LR)—as well as the centrist Liot group and several ministers, including Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard and Ecological Transition Minister Monique Barbut. Barbut described the pesticide reintroduction as "the main sticking point."
Genevard defended the bill, warning that failure would "utterly dash farmers' hopes." Renaissance MP Prisca Thevenot acknowledged the urgency but insisted that "acetamiprid must not appear in this bill," calling the provision a "mortal danger" to the legislation. Thevenot noted that the government could still table an amendment to remove the pesticide before the final vote.
Gabriel Attal, secretary-general of Renaissance, also urged the government to delete the acetamiprid article, according to an LR MP speaking to AFP. Yet late Monday afternoon, sources close to Lecornu confirmed that Matignon was not proposing to scrap the derogation, preferring to let Parliament decide.
The bill has garnered support from the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) and many right-wing and centrist MPs. However, most Horizons MPs appear to favour removing acetamiprid, while MoDem has not announced a unified position.
Environmental and Social Backlash
The debate comes a year after mass protests against the earlier Duplomb law, which also sought to reintroduce acetamiprid but was struck down by the Constitutional Council following a widely supported petition. Environmental group Générations Futures has condemned the new bill as "the Senate's deadly U-turn."
Franck Sander, president of the Confédération générale des planteurs de betteraves sucrières (CGB), countered that reauthorising flupyradifurone "in a targeted and regulated way" is essential for the competitiveness of sugar beet growers, with "all the indicators flashing red."
The bill also includes reforms to water storage for agricultural irrigation, which have sparked protests. A demonstration is planned for Monday evening at Les Invalides. Genevard called the water storage reform a "common-sense" measure, arguing that abandoning the law would "condemn the French to imported food."
The vote in the National Assembly, ahead of Senate consideration on Tuesday, coincides with recent heatwaves that have pushed environmental issues back to the forefront of French public concern. A poll for La Tribune Dimanche found that 32% of French people now consider environmental protection a priority, a 12-point increase.
This internal French debate echoes broader European tensions over agricultural policy and environmental regulation. As BusinessEurope has warned, the EU's single market inertia risks political and economic decline, and France's struggle to balance farming needs with green commitments reflects a continent-wide challenge.
