French farmers protest as parliament clashes over agriculture bill
Hundreds of farmers descended on Paris on Monday, bringing their tractors - and their frustration - straight to the gates of the French National Assembly.
Their goal was to support a divisive piece of legislation tabled by far-right MP Laurent Duplomb.
The Duplomb agricultural bill promises to ease what many in the agricultural field see as suffocating administrative constraints.
It would make it easier to obtain construction permits for livestock facilities and water reservoirs, and re-authorise the temporary use of certain pesticides such as acetamiprid; a neonicotinoid insecticide banned in France since 2018.
While still allowed in other European Union countries, acetamiprid has raised alarms among environmentalists and beekeepers due to its impact on pollinators and potential health risks for humans.
The bill was scheduled for debate, followed by a vote in the lower house of parliament on Monday.
But opposition lawmakers, mostly from the green and left-wing parties, submitted around 3,500 amendments in an attempt to delay proceedings.
With debate threatened by legislative gridlock, centrist, conservative, and far-right lawmakers passed a motion to dismiss debating the bill in parliament.
The proposal now moves to a joint committee of seven senators and seven members of parliament (MPs) - most of them supportive of the farmers' demands.
The committee will have to agree on a common version that will then be subjected to a final vote by MPs - this time, without the possibility of any amendments.
The move has infuriated the left, which has announced plans to file a no-confidence motion against the government in response.
For many of the farmers present at the protest, this bill represents a chance to ease mounting pressures, both economic and regulatory.
Clément Patoir, a 19-year-old grain farmer, described how bureaucratic red tape is driving young people away from the craft.
"There are fewer young people who want to become farmers nowadays. Many children of farmers have to constantly hear about their parents struggling with regulations. It is a complicated job, you work long hours, and you're not necessarily rewarded."
"The majority of French farmers are trying to survive. What we all want is to live and not survive. So, fewer constraints and simplification would be much appreciated," Patoir told Euronews.
Another young sugar beet farmer, Pierrick, said that the bill is about maintaining production levels. The acetamiprid pesticide is considered essential by many sugar beet and hazelnut producers.
"Today, all the methods of production to produce as much as we can are gradually being taken away from us. In addition, we always have administrative constraints that add to our workload ... But to maintain the levels of production that we have, no, there is no alternative today that works," he explained.
Supporters of the bill argue that easing restrictions will be critical to avoiding reliance on imports and keeping France's agricultural sector competitive.
But environmentalists and left-wing lawmakers see the bill as dangerous. Among those gathered in Paris to oppose it was Gabriel Bertein, a left-wing mayor, who warned of long-term damage to biodiversity and soil health.
"If this kind of bill does pass, this will be a sign we are going backwards. We open the doors to more use of pesticide products that we know are dangerous to life," he told Euronews while being heckled by a group of farmers.
He added that state funding should shift toward more sustainable farming practices.
"We must stop helping and subsidising a type of intensive agriculture that is not going in the right direction. There is an urgent need to change direction, to focus on these topics."
Demonstrations are also planned in Brussels next week, targeting the EU's environmental rules and green policy agenda.
Greece has said it has completed work on an undersea power cable connecting the mainland to the island of Crete, a key step in its ambitious plan for a wider expansion of the grid that will eventually include Cyprus and Israel.
The €1 billion link spanning 330 kilometres was plugged in on Saturday and is expected to be fully operational this summer, Greece's grid operator said.
The project, for which the European Union provided the bulk of funding through grants and loans, aims to bolster energy diversification after after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Athens hopes to extend the link, dubbed the Great Sea Interconnector, to Cyprus and Israel by the end of the decade.
The project is also a move towards Crete being able to replace fossil fuel-based power generation with renewables, government officials said.
"Crete is becoming a central pillar for the country's energy transition," Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou said.
"We're moving forward with the development of an integrated network of electrical interconnections, strengthening our country as a strategic energy hub in the Eastern Mediterranean."
However, the wider project has been complicated by financial disagreements and an ongoing maritime dispute with Turkey.
Greece and Egypt also want to establish a separate undersea link on a similar timetable that would bypass the island of Crete and connect directly to the Greek mainland.
The undersea cables to Crete have been laid at a depth of 1,200 metres and will support a capacity of 1,000 megawatts using high-voltage direct current transmission systems.
Supervised by a subsidiary of Greece's Independent Power Transmission Operator, the project involved private contractors Siemens Energy of Germany, Greek construction firm TERNA and the Italy-based Prysmian Group cable company, among others.
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