Macron flirts with EU-bashing in wink to French farmers

PARIS — As angry French farmers threaten to blockade the roads into Paris, Emmanuel Macron wants to divert them to Brussels.

The French president's team is increasingly blaming European Union rules for the rising discontent over falling farm incomes. 

In recent days, government heavyweights have lined up to attack Brussels-mandated green measures, stepping up the rhetoric as protests escalated.

Paris is now urging the EU to drop some green measures, limit food imports to the EU from Ukraine, and stop pushing to conclude a trade deal with the South American countries of the Mercosur bloc, all of which are seen as threats to French agriculture. 

The president is even planning to put the farmers’ discontent on the agenda of a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday. He is expected to ask for an exemption to EU rules requiring farmers to set aside part of their arable land to foster biodiversity.

Macron will discuss the crisis with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the margins of the summit, an Elysée official said. 

While France’s allergy to some Brussels farming obligations is not new, the efforts to shift focus onto the EU follows days of rising tension, with protests spreading across the country.

Farmers are furious about falling revenues and complain of overregulation and environmental laws that are too strict. They're also unhappy with foreign competition, including from meat and sugar imported from Ukraine, and free-trade deals they say are unfair.

After announcing a first set of measures to help the farmers last week, Macron's team is to outline further concessions on Tuesday as the protests continue.

Last week the country's agriculture minister, Marc Fesneau, called for “a form of agricultural patriotism,” stressing this should not be seen as “a bad word.”

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal had to walk a tightrope as he endorsed French farmers’ criticisms of Brussels regulation, while stressing the benefits the EU’s agricultural subsidies bring to the sector. “We must remain firm in our determination to preserve our French-style agriculture,” Attal said last week, as he promised that Paris would fight in Brussels to relax farming rules. 

French attempts to portray the farmers' crisis as a European problem come just months before a European Parliament election, with opposition far-right leader Marine Le Pen piggybacking on the discontent and pointing the finger at the EU. 

Siding with farmers and blaming Brussels could make sense as a short-term strategy for Macron's team in order to suppress rural support for the far right in the June election.

“The French have a very good opinion of farmers and consider that their situation is very difficult,” noted Mathieu Gallard, research director at polling firm Ipsos. "French farmers traditionally vote for the right-wing parties." A recent poll showed 82 percent of French voters backing the farmers’ protests.

But blaming Brussels could backfire and undermine Macron's European green credentials, experts warn.

“This risks being a counter-productive move ahead of European elections,” warned Thierry Chopin, a political science professor at the College of Europe and an EU expert at the Jacques Delors Institute.

In recent months Macron has tried repeatedly to reassure French voters that the green transition would not come at their expense, calling for non-punitive measures and a "regulatory pause" on the EU's environmental laws.

“Criticisms of green policies by conservatives and the far right are dominating the political debate. It seems that the government is letting them set the agenda,” Chopin said. He added that Macron’s government “risks validating the arguments of the conservatives and the radical right on this subject.”

But Macron’s supporters stress that Paris has not given up on its green ambitions. Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, an MEP from Macron’s Renew Group, said Paris was not questioning the EU's green goals, but the timeline of their entry into force. “It is not a change of direction, it is a matter of timing,” she said.

This article has been updated with additional information.