🇫🇷Weekly Dispatch - Wheeling and dealing
04 February 2023 - Paris Salon d’Agriculteur drama, France signs arms deal with Armenia, and Negotiations on a future “Universal time savings account”
👋Hey guys, Julien here.
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This week
🐄Salon d’Agriculteur drama
🇦🇲 France signs arms deal with Armenia
🕒Negotiations on “Universal time savings account”
🐄Salon d’Agriculteur drama
We have an explosive story to start the weekend, with the 2024 Paris International Agricultural Show kicking off this weekend.
In the lead up to the show, there were announcements of a debate with stakeholders from the agricultural world at this event, and an announcement that Les Soulèvements de la Terre, a far-left ecologist group, would be invited to this debate.
Naturally, with all of the ongoing tensions occurring, this lit the powder keg on fire and triggered a lot of drama.
With outrage at the announcement of their invitation, noting that they had been dissolved as an organisation by Macron’s Interior Minister, Gerald Darmanin, the Elysée published a clarification stating that they had been “neither invited nor contacted” and that this was an error.
And this was not just limited to far-left ecologist organisations either.
Michel Edouard Leclerc, the founder of the famous E. Leclerc band, had also been included in what he called the “crappy announcement” but had not received an invitation himself.
Decrying “a gross manipulation”, Leclerc refused to debate point black, and his voice was joined by the Farmers Confederation, who made this stinging statement:
“Emmanuel Macron must respond to fundamental problems, not make publicity comments on the backs of peasants”
Ouch.
Ultimately, by Friday, the Elysée had just given up on organising the meeting/debate, and there was a lot of drama that will be covered by a larger dispatch this week covering what happened, why, and how French President Macron reacted to it.
Regardless of everything, the situation led to a very un-welcoming committee at the Salon d’Agriculture, where members of the FNSEA and the Ja yelled out statements such as “We’re waiting for you Macron” and “We’re going to bleed him”.
And yet, the French president did not seem cowed by the reaction, spending over eight hours attending the salon, speaking to those who were present, speaking to agricultural unions, and engaging in ad-hoc debates and discussions on their issues.
Despite the efforts of the government to date, they often reiterated similar complaints to the beginning of the farmers protests: over regulation, low wages, tough environmental rules, and the import of foreign produce, notably from ukraine, impacting their competitivity.
And he pushed back on the claims that French Farms were struggling and were being beaten to death by the consequences of the war in Ukraine or by the numerous issues that French farmers raised:
“France's farms are still strong and producing ... so it's not true to say that they're falling apart … [so don’t] paint a catastrophic picture of our agriculture”
Unfortunately, it seems like the discussions were not entirely as productive as Macron would have liked, as even after all of his efforts of discussing with the protestors and exhibitors, and the four-delay to the starting ceremony, the reactions were violent.
The audience boo’d him, yelled words like “Scum” and “liar”, and shouted “get out” repeatedly as he inaugurated the event. However, these more violent protestors were limited in number, with the Paris Police Prefect, Laurent Nuñez, estimating that there were around 300-400 of them in attendance.
🇦🇲 France signs arms deal with Armenia
Moving on!
With the close relationship that France has always had with Armenia, thanks in no small part to the close cultural ties fostered by artists such as Franco-Armenian singer, Charles Aznavour, France was always at pains to best support the country over several crises.
Armenia had recently suspended its membership in the Russian-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) military alliance, following Russia’s lack of support during the recent conflict with Azerbaijan, where it was effectively left out to dry as Russian peacekeepers stood to the side and let the attack happen.
For those with an interest in geopolitics: this is like NATO abandoning Poland if Russia invaded them. Not a great source of comfort.
So, with an increasingly unstable world, an out-of-control Russia, and an ally that has no support from elsewhere, France has taken a large step in discussing and signing arms deals with the Armenian government, as part of a push to deepen defence links between the countries.
With French Armed Forces minister, Sébastien Lecornu travelling to Yerevan to meet his counterpart, Suren Papikyan, his plane already brought with it a delivery of night vision goggles, as well as potential deals covering things from assault rifles to Mistral missiles.
Armenia wants new allies and wants stronger forces to underpin its security. However, the reality is that it is still dependent and very attached to Russia through a series of treaties and through the stationing of Russian military bases in the country, which it doesn’t plan to close soon.
But this leads to several questions, such as whether Armenia is hoping it can emulate Turkey’s position as a formerly close ally of the West through NATO, but also being a close ally of Russia, sitting on the fence and benefiting from working with both sides.
If you want to read more on this topic, subscribe and let me know below!
🕒Negotiations on “Universal time savings account”
Turning to social issues, President Emmanuel Macron and Edouard Philippe had previously proposed what has been called a ‘Universal time savings account’, which would have allowed individuals to bank a certain amount of time that they could use to have some breathing space in their careers.
While it needs to be filled out, it would effectively be expected to be fuelled through things such as unused leave days and would be a form of holiday that would be attached to the individual, and not to their employer or their employment contract.
This would be able to be used at any time, regardless of whether they changed employer or sector, and was included in the French President’s reelection campaign programme for 2022, and has been supported by the CFDT. Gabriel Attal also raised it in his January 20 speech to the Assemblée National on political priorities.
However, when raised in discussions between MEDEF and Unions on a “new pact for life at work”, the reaction was pretty strong: ‘No’
Several statements were made regarding this idea, from it not ‘being a priority’ for the ongoing discussion, and that it, in fact, “has no place in this discussion”.
This was a feeling thast was ultimately shared by the CPME (Confederation of small and medium-sized enterprises), whose vice president, Eric Chevée, made it clear how they felt about the whole idea:
“We are not interested, it’s yet another hassle in the organization of work”
Ultimately, the discussions on the new pact for life at work are unlikely to be damaged by this event, but you never know, as this could prove to become a problem if the discussions take a bad turn.
However, the government could always circumvent any collapse in discussions through legislation, even if it may want to avoid this.
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Hi Julien, great articles, very informative. Just a small suggestion in French we say: Salon de L'agriculture. I would love to be a contributor/support staff for the French dispatch as I saw you might be looking. I have several years experience of EU and french political analysis, writing reports etc. Toma Moran on LinkedIn 👋🏻