Cheminade of Holland to the candidates before the FNSEA
A first in the presidential campaign. Seven of the ten candidates have succeeded on Thursday on the same stage: that of the 66th Congress of the FNSEA in Montpellier (Hérault). Only the far left was missing, including Jean-Luc Melenchon.
All candidates have outlined three major challenges. First, that of the environment, including the management of water, while the French countryside lack of rain for the second consecutive year. Nicolas Sarkozy promised a simplification of administrative authorizations: "It is enough of a preliminary statement" to build dams for irrigation of crops, "up to 350,000 m3." Other candidates have called for better water management. "We're going to crises increasingly frequent and difficult," warned François Bayrou. Also on the environmental component, Francois Hollande has put forward the alternative energy sources. "Biogas, biofuel, biomass, these are new sources of energy and new income for farmers, said the PS candidate. We must share these investments. We will adopt a tax incentive. "
Secondly, virtually consensual: the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). "I welcome the positive signs that the new CAP takes with keeping its budget. Aids represent fair compensation for the farmer to a policy of low prices to the consumer ", ruled Francois Bayrou. Marine Le Pen is the only advocate a judgment of the CAP in favor of a "PAF" (French agricultural policy), that is to say a re-nationalization of aid. "I am here to defend the interests of French gardeners and French consumers. I do not want a Europe which includes agricultural servant of the WTO, "warned the leading frontist. The sovereigntist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan demanded "firm renegotiation of the CAP because we pay $ 7 billion more to the EU budget that we receive."
Reduction in the hourly cost
Finally, the third item listed, competitiveness. France is now the third largest in Europe in trade of agricultural and food products, behind Germany and the Netherlands. "There must be logical and contractual solidarity, to be more competitive. This will be the sense of public investment bank that will support the development of SMEs in the food industry, pleaded Francois Hollande. We will develop a collective and not individual contract between farmers and manufacturers, allowing visibility of volumes but also the prices. "
Nicolas Sarkozy has defended his hand down the cost schedule adopted under his five-year seasonal and the permanent employees that will result from the social VAT. "97% of agricultural workers are covered by a 5.4% decrease in payroll taxes," he repeated. As for the little candidate Jacques Cheminade, which boasts a history of commercial counselor of France in New York, he is committed to "put innovation and research at the center of the debate on agriculture to meet the challenge of 2050, that of feeding 9 billion of men. "
ALSO READ:
"French farmers are converting to high-tech
"The beef recipe is no longer in France