It is a profile that reassures farmers and panics environmentalists. Marc Fesneau, one of François Bayrou’s right-hand men, has just been appointed Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty. In the midst of the war in Ukraine, the stakes are high, but the pro-hunting and anti-animal welfare positions of the former figure of the Modem are causing great tension.
It is a crucial post for the ecological transition and the key to the Hôtel de Villeroy has just been handed over to Marc Fesneau, until now Minister of Relations with Parliament. The vice-president of the Modem replaces one of those close to the government, Julien Denormandie who says he wants to devote himself to his family. Son of a farmer, Marc Fesneau sometimes refers to himself as “spokesperson for rurality”. It must be said that the minister knows agricultural subjects, he was François Bayrou’s referent on these questions and worked for several years for the Chamber of Agriculture of Loir-et-Cher. It is therefore not surprising that his name is well received by the agricultural community. On the other hand, on the side of the ecologists, the teeth cringe.
“The worst nomination for animals”, tackle on Twitter the economist of the animal condition, Romain Espinosa. An article from Challenges, signed Nicolas Domenach, resurfaced on the occasion of the appointment of Marc Fesneau. The man, a lover of rifle hunting and archery, denounced the “crazy dangerous eco-friendly“, the “vegan and antispecist, those who compare chicken farms to SS concentration camps” and who will go “annoy hunters, anglers or breeders who can no longer bear to see their sheep devoured by wolves”.
Opposed to animal welfare measures
Last February, the deputy Matthieu Orphelin was offended by the organization of “republic hunts” at the Château de Chambord in which several business owners, sportsmen and politicians participated. The deputy demanded the list of the names of the parliamentarians invited to these events. However, as noted by the newspaper 20 minutes, the former minister François Baroin revealed in a book released in 2019 to have participated in this hunting day with Marc Fesneau and other parliamentarians.
But it is above all the votes as deputy of the now Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty that are singled out. On several occasions, the elected official opposed proposals against animal abuse such as the total ban on breeding laying hens in cages, the ban on live castration and the cutting of the tails of piglets… Observatory Politics and Animals has thus afflicted it with a 1.3 on these subjects. A “big casting mistake” for the president of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, Christophe Marie.
Defender of the “nurturing vocation” of Europe
In the meantime, the task of the new minister promises to be difficult. He inherited a ministry whose contours were revisited by the war in Ukraine, which made food sovereignty a priority. A topic at the heart of “independence” agriculture that he recently defended at the Agricultural Show, in the footsteps of his predecessor, an ardent defender of “nourishing vocation” from France and Europe. While more than half of the 400,000 French farmers are likely to retire within five years, access to land will be one of the priorities of the ministry with the fight against the artificialization of agricultural soils and the agro-ecological transition. .
“He is someone we know well, an elected representative from rural areas (…) always invested and appreciated”told AFP the president of the FNSEA, the majority agricultural union, Christiane Lambert, welcoming the wording of the ministry which now includes the “food sovereignty”a theme “more important than ever” in the post-Covid context and the war in Ukraine. “We are expecting it on three major issues: farmers’ income, climate change, societal expectations (less pesticides, more animal welfare), to which is added the need to produce”, reacted Sébastien Windsor, president of the Chambers of Agriculture, of which the new minister was a member.
Marina Fabre Soundron @fabre_marina with AFP
