French left seeks to latch on to success of petition against pesticides
The far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, a staunch defender of the law aiming to "lift constraints on exercising the profession of farmer," has also reacted to the petition. "Even though we regret the lies accompanying the ongoing petition, we fully support holding a parliamentary debate on the Duplomb Law," RN leader Marine Le Pen wrote on the social media platform X on Monday. That evening, Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard said the government was "fully receptive" to a parliamentary debate.
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LeMonde
7 hours ago
- LeMonde
Recognizing Palestine: 'It was becoming dishonorable to do nothing,' says ex-French foreign minister
President Emmanuel Macron announced, on Thursday, July 24, that France would recognize the State of Palestine in September, at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. He hopes this move will "make a decisive contribution to peace in the Middle East," as the suffering of the Gaza Strip's civilian population continually reaches unprecedented levels. Hubert Védrine, who served as France's foreign affairs minister between 1997 and 2002 under President Jacques Chirac and was also a diplomatic adviser to Chirac's predecessor François Mitterrand, supports the current president's decision. His response to critics of Macron's move, as he states in an interview with Le Monde, is to ask: "In what way would it have been useful to do nothing?" He added that "it is Netanyahu's Israel that is becoming increasingly isolated, not France." Macron has committed to recognizing the State of Palestine, but Gaza lies in ruins and the Israeli authorities have moved on from the two-state solution. Isn't the president arriving too late? Given the appalling situation in Gaza and the lack of prospects, it was becoming dishonorable to do nothing. We can no longer stick to lamentations in the face of famine used as a weapon of war. This recognition of the Palestinian state will have a great moral, but also political, dimension.
France 24
10 hours ago
- France 24
'To feed, not to poison': French chefs push back against pesticide law
"We restaurateurs are in this business to feed, not to poison." A wave of discontent is spreading through France's culinary world as chefs publicly denounce a new law reauthorising a controversial pesticide. The so-called " Duplomb law" has sparked an outcry among food professionals, with a petition demanding its repeal surpassing 2 million signatures on Monday. In a joint opinion piece published last Thursday in Le Monde, hundreds of chefs voiced alarm over the declining quality of ingredients and joined calls for the law's withdrawal. 'If we're speaking out today, it's because we're stunned by the blindness of our politicians and their increasingly obvious ties with agribusiness,' they wrote, following the highly publicised intervention of three-starred chef Jacques Marcon, who rarely speaks out publicly. Marcon took to Instagram to criticise Senator Laurent Duplomb, the law's author, who represents Haute-Loire, where Marcon's restaurant is located. "'Proud to be Altiligerian' [Proud to be someone from the Haute-Loire] is our department's motto, but today I'm ashamed to live in Haute-Loire, the department you represent!" he wrote, addressing the senator directly. The Duplomb law reintroduces, by way of derogation, the use of acetamiprid, a pesticide from the neonicotinoid family long criticised for its environmental impact. Banned in France since 2018, the chemical remains legal in the European Union and proponents say French farmers need it to help them compete. 07:11 Marcon accused the senator of acting as "a spokesperson for the agro-industry, which favours intensive agriculture harmful to future generations". His message, accompanied by a photo of a wild herb field in Haute-Loire, was widely shared and drew strong support from fellow chefs defending local terroirs and food quality. "Thank you, we feel the same here about our Brière landscapes, in Loire-Atlantique, which collect all the water from the surrounding runoff," said Éric Guérin, chef at the Michelin-starred La Mare aux Oiseaux. "Thank you for saying it loud and clear, I'm happy to relay your message." A groundbreaking stand Marcon's intervention – a first of its kind in the fine dining world – carried particular weight due to his standing in French gastronomy. It broke a long-standing silence within the industry on political and environmental issues and sparked an unprecedented mobilisation: nearly 400 chefs and food professionals have since signed a shared statement. "The so-called 'Duplomb law' is an insult to scientists, to farmers who work without pesticides every day, to public health and to our profession," the open letter reads. Signatories include three-starred chefs Mauro Colagreco and Glenn Viel, former three-star chef Olivier Roellinger, and Top Chef alumna Chloé Charles. "I don't understand this law," Viel told AFP, denouncing "pesticides that pollute our soil" and linking food consumption to cancer rates. "We're capable of spending billions to defend our country and rightly so. But can't we find a billion or two to help farmers make this ecological transition?" Speaking to Nice Matin, Colagreco – who heads the restaurant Mirazur, in southern France – slammed the law as 'catastrophic', describing it as a step backward that goes against scientific consensus and 'shows outright contempt for health and environmental standards'. He urged a full repeal of the legislation, calling for agriculture that 'respects nature and our health'. Others were more blunt. 'This law is a hammer blow,' said chef and food columnist Marie-Victorine Manoa, calling for a 'general rebellion'. Thibaut Spiwack, Michelin-starred chef at ANONA, told RTL that the law widens the gap between those with access to healthy food and those without. He warned it will result in "vegetables loaded with chemical, toxic products and very low nutritional value" – a purely commercial logic, he said, 'normalised simply because other European countries do it too". "We are worried. Worried about the future of our food, battered by the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. Worried about the terrifying rise in cancer. Worried about the deteriorating quality of the products we serve, increasingly laced with pesticide residue. Even the water we bring to the table, bottled or tap, is affected." – Excerpt from the column published in Le Monde A rare show of unity The initiative was launched by Ecotable, a company that helps restaurants adopt sustainable practices. The movement has united Michelin-starred chefs, school canteen cooks, bistro owners and farmer-restaurateur collectives. "These are people who rarely speak publicly, but food is their everyday reality," said Ecotable founder Fanny Giansetto. "We restaurateurs are hard workers. We usually keep our heads down and keep going," said Viel. "But at some point, you have to bang your fist on the table." Even Marcon, who proudly claims his farming roots, expressed self-criticism. "I also consider myself responsible for this backward-looking law," he said, vowing to become "a real activist for agriculture and the environment". He also called on the industry to take stock and "help" farmers. "We're fully aware of the daily challenges French producers face," the chefs wrote, "caught between the financial pressures of their profession and growing public demands to move away from industrial agriculture. But the Duplomb law, passed on July 8, addresses none of these issues. On the contrary, it turns a blind eye to the real problems: farmer incomes, deregulated trade and food competition." One Instagram user, identifying as an organic winemaker, responded under Marcon's post: "Your words are welcome, thank you. This law supposedly 'requested' BY farmers is far from unanimous among us!" Senator Duplomb responded on Facebook, accusing Marcon of "lecturing others" and inviting him to "step out from behind his Michelin stars". But in a sector long reluctant to engage in public debate – as seen during the farmers' protests of early 2024 – Marcon's outcry appears to have sparked a shift. More chefs are speaking out, increasingly aligned around the future of food, public health and the responsibility they bear. Watch more One year after protests, French farming still in crisis Among the most visible supporters is Stéphane Manigold, restaurateur and head of the Eclore group. In an Instagram post titled "Truth of the facts according to the text", he challenged Duplomb's claims "point by point", describing the bill as "a limited social measure, which you are attempting to wrap in an opportunistic ideological narrative". "People on the ground are neither blind nor naive," he wrote. According to a poll published Sunday in La Tribune Dimanche, 64% of French respondents said they hoped French President Emmanuel Macron would refuse to sign the bill and instead call for a new parliamentary debate. Macron has said he is awaiting the Constitutional Council's ruling on the law's legality, expected on August 7, before making his decision. In the meantime, the Duplomb bill appears to have triggered a wake-up call, galvanising a cross-cutting wave of anger – from local bistros to Michelin-starred kitchens.
France 24
10 hours ago
- France 24
'No alternative' to two-state solution for Israel, Palestinians
"Only a political, two-state solution will help respond to the legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security. There is no alternative," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said at the start of the three-day meeting. Days before the conference, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he would formally recognize a State of Palestine in September. In an interview with French weekly La Tribune Dimanche, Barrot said that other European countries will confirm "their intention to recognize the State of Palestine" during the conference, without confirming which. "All states have a responsibility to act now," said Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Mustafa at the start of the meeting, calling for an international force to deploy to help underwrite Palestinian statehood. "Recognize the state of Palestine without delay." France is hoping that Britain will take this step. More than 200 British members of parliament on Friday voiced support for the idea, but Prime Minister Keir Starmer reiterated that recognition of a Palestinian state "must be part of a wider plan." According to an AFP database, at least 142 of the 193 UN member states -- including France -- now recognize the Palestinian state proclaimed by the Palestinian leadership in exile in 1988. In 1947, a resolution of the UN General Assembly decided on the partition of Palestine, then under a British mandate, into two independent states -- one Jewish and the other Arab. The following year, the state of Israel was proclaimed. For several decades, the vast majority of UN member states have supported the idea of a two-state solution, Israelis and Palestinians living side-by-side. But after more than 21 months of war in Gaza, the ongoing expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and Israeli officials declaring designs to annex occupied territory, it is feared a Palestinian state could be geographically impossible. The current war in Gaza started following a deadly attack by Hamas on Israel, which responded with a large-scale military response that has claimed tens of thousands of Palestinian lives. This week's conference comes at a moment when "the prospect of a Palestinian state has never been so threatened, or so necessary," Barrot said. Call for courage Beyond facilitating conditions for the recognition of a Palestinian state, the meeting will focus on three other issues -- reform of the Palestinian Authority, disarmament of Hamas and its exclusion from Palestinian public life, and normalization of relations with Israel by Arab states. However, no new normalization deals are expected to be announced at the meeting, according to a French diplomatic source. On the other hand, "for the first time, Arab countries will condemn Hamas and call for its disarmament," Barrot said. The conference "offers a unique opportunity to transform international law and the international consensus into an achievable plan and to demonstrate resolve to end the occupation and conflict once and for all, for the benefit of all peoples," said Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour, calling for "courage" from participants. Israel and the United States were not taking part in the meeting, amid growing international pressure to mount on Israel to end nearly two years of war in Gaza. Despite "tactical pauses" in some military operations announced by Israel, the humanitarian catastrophe in the ravaged coastal territory is expected to dominate speeches by representatives of more than 100 countries as they take the podium. Bruno Stagno, chief advocacy officer at Human Rights Watch, said "more platitudes about a two-state solution and peace process will do nothing to advance the conference's goals, nor to halt the extermination of Palestinians in Gaza."
