In the end, the surname will have been the right one. LR Michel Barnier was chosen on Thursday by Emmanuel Macron for the post of Prime Minister. At 73 years old, he already has a long political career behind him, including the Brexit negotiations for the European Union, but also, on a national level, a notable period in the Ministry of Agriculture during the Fillon government, between 2007 and 2009.
Michel Barnier’s great strength, according to the agricultural sector leaders we have contacted, all the unions together, is his good knowledge of the problems, in France, but also at European level.
While the current Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is due to announce her vision on agriculture in early 2025, based on the recommendations of a group of experts from all sides, “[sa] Knowledge of the common agricultural policy is an advantage,” stresses a leading player in the sector.
Since leaving the Rue de Varenne for Brussels, Michel Barnier has remained in contact with the French agricultural world, according to several sources. A sector official said that he continued to meet him regularly at the agricultural fair. Questioned on Europe 1 in 2015, in the midst of farmers’ demonstrations, the former minister declared that agriculture “is a social issue” and that “we must pay attention to this agricultural suffering”.
“Agriculture cannot be subject solely to market laws”
“He has the codes,” underlines one of our interlocutors, who describes “a fairly unifying and simple profile.”
As in 2009, this source continues, when Michel Barnier, then Minister of Agriculture, decided to “make a major change in the conditions of the CAP by transferring to breeders a significant amount of funding, which until then had been allocated to major crops, particularly cereals.”
“I wanted to give the CAP a more ecologically responsible and economically fair direction,” Michel Barnier said at the time. We are told that he is a skilled negotiator who “does not force his hand, but stands firm on his positions.” There is a fair amount of consensus on Michel Barnier’s profile. Even on the side of the Peasants’ Confederation, historically anchored on the left.
Although the union sees his appointment to Matignon as a “democratic denial in relation to this summer’s elections”, it is satisfied that the man knows agriculture and European issues well. And the spokesperson for the movement, Laurence Marandola, attributes the merit to a sentence he made in 2008: “Agriculture cannot be left solely to the laws of the market,” the minister said at the time. She now hopes to be consulted quickly and to see what the new Prime Minister will propose “on prices, incomes and market regulation”.
Making agriculture an “immediate priority”
“We had to move forward and appoint a Prime Minister,” says the president of the Rural Coordination. Now “let’s build!” says Véronique le Floc’h, who is waiting to find out who Michel Barnier will entrust with the Agriculture portfolio. The same urgency is expressed in the press release signed jointly by the FNSEA and the Young Farmers, which, after having congratulated him on his appointment, urged him to make agriculture “the immediate priority” of his government.
Those involved in the sector have been repeating it time and again at the beginning of September: anger continues to grow among operators since the demonstrations at the beginning of the year. They regret that not all the measures promised by the outgoing executive have been adopted, that the bill assigned to them has paid the price of the dissolution of the National Assembly and they do not rule out further action if nothing is done to provide answers.
Source: BFM TV
