"It doesn't inspire me much": Laurent Duplomb reacts to the petition against his law which has passed the million signature mark
By The New Obs
Laurent Duplomb at his farm in Saint-Paulien, Haute-Loire. MARIE JULLIARD / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
500,000 signatures in 10 days: the petition launched on the National Assembly website by a student against the controversial Duplomb law had already broken all records this Saturday, July 19, opening the way to a discussion on the merits of this law in the hemicycle , but not to its re-examination. With now more than a million signatures this Sunday, this is simply unprecedented (no petition has ever been debated in the hemicycle in the history of the Fifth Republic). A citizen's approach does not seem to reach the LR senator of Haute-Loire Laurent Duplomb, farmer and co-author of the text.
"It doesn't inspire me much. It means that the opposition is speaking out," he reacted soberly on France Info this Sunday , assuring this Sunday morning that a petition on the BRAV-M had already, in the past, exceeded 800,000 votes. On the National Assembly website, the counter for the said petition on the BRAV-M is however stuck at 263,887 signatories.
"Behind this, there will surely be a debate that will be organized in the National Assembly to say what we have been saying for six months," the senator reacted, visibly tired of this new democratic twist surrounding his text.
"70% of senators voted for this law and 60% of deputies voted for it. Today, it is the law of Parliament that has been adopted."
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Far from seeing this as a massive rejection by the French population, the senator believes that the NGOs and signatories wish to "make agriculture a scapegoat" .
"Acetamiprid is authorized in 26 out of 27 European countries. All scientists across Europe, except France, have given their approval to continue using acetamiprid until 2033. [...] I'm happy to hear everything, but the reality is that we're currently putting French farmers in unfair competition. [...] We have to accept the European rules of the game. [...] We prohibit ourselves from producing, but with a completely culpable naivety, we allow German, Italian, or Spanish products that we consume to enter. [...] We import what we prohibit ourselves from producing in France."
And to conclude, scathingly: "What ecology demands today is the end of French agriculture."
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