France’s National Assembly has approved an emergency agriculture bill after a tense overnight debate, clearing the way for the possible temporary return of two pesticides banned in the country but still authorised elsewhere in the European Union.
French MPs passed the legislation by 296 votes to 224 in the early hours of Tuesday morning, following a fractious sitting that exposed sharp differences between the government and some members of its own parliamentary camp.
The bill now requires a final confirmatory vote in the senate, expected later on Tuesday, before it can be definitively adopted by parliament. Approval in the upper house is considered highly likely, as one of the senate’s main demands – the provision allowing limited pesticide derogations – survived negotiations between the two chambers.
Under the legislation, France’s food, environmental and occupational health agency, ANSES, could exceptionally authorise the use of acetamiprid and flupyradifurone in agricultural sectors facing serious difficulties.
Both substances are prohibited in France but permitted under EU rules. Any authorisation would be temporary, conditional and restricted to a small number of crops or sectors.
Supporters argue that the measure would help French producers compete with farmers elsewhere in Europe who are allowed to use the same products. Opponents say it risks reversing environmental protections and exposing people and ecosystems to potentially harmful chemicals.
Government allies voice frustration
The pesticide provision proved particularly contentious because of the public backlash against the Duplomb law last year. That legislation sought to restore the use of acetamiprid but was partly struck down by France’s Constitutional Council.
Several MPs from parties supporting the government had suggested removing the measure from the latest bill, particularly after Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu appeared to signal that he did not want acetamiprid included in the legislation.
Lecornu’s office rejected that interpretation, saying the continued ban on acetamiprid remained the bill’s “guiding principle” and that Parliament had been left to decide whether to amend the text.
However, when centrist MPs from Renaissance, MoDem and the independent Liot group attempted to table amendments deleting the pesticide provision, the government used its procedural powers to prevent them from being considered.
That decision prompted unusually open criticism from MPs within the governing camp.
“This screening is arbitrary and contrary to the spirit of democracy,” MoDem MP Richard Ramos told the chamber.
Gabriel Attal, who leads both the Renaissance party and its parliamentary group, said the sitting had been “marred by a lack of understanding”.
“Why was it said that the Assembly could decide on this matter?” Attal asked. “And tonight, without any explanation from the government, we finally learn that this is not the case?”
According to a senior figure within the Ensemble pour la République group who attended the debate, the former prime minister tried several times to reach Lecornu by telephone but received no reply.
Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard urged MPs not to reject the entire bill because of the dispute over a single provision.
Speaking from the podium and later from the government benches, Genevard said the legislation offered “concrete and long-awaited answers to our farmers”.
Environmental opposition
The disagreement also extends into the cabinet. Ecological Transition Minister Monique Barbut is personally opposed to allowing acetamiprid to return, and people close to her have suggested that she could consider resigning if the legislation is finally adopted with the pesticide exemption intact.
The bill’s rapporteur, conservative MP Julien Dive, defended the provision, arguing that any decision would ultimately be made by scientists rather than politicians.
“We’re focusing on one issue because it’s been turned into a sacred cow,” he told reporters. “It’s not politicians who decide, it’s ANSES, which bases its decisions on science.”
That argument failed to persuade opposition parties on the left.
Aurélie Trouvé of the hard-left France Unbowed party pointed to warnings issued by the French Medical Association and 16 scientific and medical societies.
“That’s it – these pesticides must be banned,” she said.
Socialist MP Mélanie Thomin argued that the wording of the legislation could result in scientists being “placed under supervision”, raising concerns about the independence of the regulatory process.
Almost the entire left voted against the bill. Its opposition was outweighed by support from the National Rally and around two-thirds of MPs from the government’s parliamentary bloc.
France Unbowed, the Socialists and the Greens have all said they will refer the legislation to the Constitutional Council if it is approved by the Senate.
The debate reflects a wider divide in French society over how to balance environmental and public health concerns with the mounting economic pressures facing farmers.
Environmental campaign group Générations Futures denounced what it called the Senate’s “deadly U-turn” on banned pesticides.
France’s powerful FNSEA farmers’ union, by contrast, welcomed the National Assembly vote as “a major turning point” and an acknowledgement of “the critical situation currently facing French agriculture”.
(with newswires)
