A few days before the Agricultural Show, the FNSEA and the Young Farmers received Tuesday at the Élysée

Don't let yourself be overcome by unexpected anger again. Since the start of the farmers' protest movement in mid-January, the government has continued to respond. Meetings in Matignon, trips to farms, serial announcements... The executive pulled out all the stops. If the measures proposed in recent weeks have helped to reduce the pressure, agricultural unions remain wary. And expect something concrete. Quickly.

An emergency that is all the more pressing as the traditional Agricultural Show opens on Saturday February 24. Emmanuel Macron may expect to be pushed around, but he wants to calm the mood at all costs. This is why, after receiving the Peasant Confederation and the Rural Coordination last Wednesday, the President of the Republic invited the FNSEA and the Young Farmers this Tuesday to the Élysée.

According to his entourage, the head of government will discuss the rewriting of the agricultural bill, which was suspended at the start of the crisis, as well as the monitoring and execution of the measures already announced by the government. An interview in a still tense context: Dunkirk, Marseille and even the Marne were the scene of new farmer demonstrations this Monday. To respond to the peasant world, which already fears "half measures", Prime Minister Gabriel Attal will hold in this regard, on Wednesday, a new press conference entirely devoted to their revolt.

It must be said that the unions are not giving up. Since the last burst of government announcements, which ranged from the payment of emergency aid to simplification decrees through a "pause" of the Ecophyto pesticide reduction plan, farmers have continued to repeat that they want see the first results before the start of the Show. For the boss of the FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau, who spoke on Europe 1, “it is not because people have returned to the farms that the subject is over”. According to him, Emmanuel Macron will have to announce, on Saturday, "what his vision of agriculture is for the coming years and what we are doing right away." From there, the content of its reception by operators will depend.

Despite this climate of tension, more than 600,000 visitors are expected in the aisles of the Porte de Versailles until the beginning of March. Faced with the risks of disruption, “the show must remain a great celebration despite everything,” wanted to reassure Arnaud Lemoine, the director of Ceneca, the organization that owns the event, Thursday on BFMTV. The Salon “is also the salon of grandmothers, strollers, families.” “We must welcome them properly, normally.”