Annie Genevard, interim co-leader of the Les Républicains (LR) party, was officially appointed Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests on Saturday 21 September in Michel Barnier’s government. She succeeds not one, but two predecessors in this role.
Indeed, after angry demonstrations by farmers at the beginning of the year, the decision was taken to divide the burden. Agnès Pannier-Runacher thus became, at the beginning of February, Minister Delegate alongside Marc Fesneau, who has held the ministerial post since May 2022. While Mme Pannier-Runacher returns to Michel Barnier’s government as Minister for Ecological Transition and Energy, Mme Genevard takes full possession of the ministry on the Rue de Varenne.
This former classical literature teacher, with a long political career, first as mayor of Morteau and then as a LR MP for Doubs, thus won her first Moroccan vote at the age of 68. Having expressed an interest in education, she knows that farmers are eagerly awaiting her. Indeed, during the summer, many very sensitive files piled up on the desks of the ministers who resigned.
The health crisis, which is hitting sheep farms hard, but also livestock farms, is at the top of the list. Two waves of bluetongue have spread from the north to the south of France, even as the epizootic haemorrhagic disease has re-emerged. At the same time, the continuous rains that fell on almost the entire territory, except in the southern part, have disrupted cereal crops and viticulture. Farmers are lamenting a reduced wheat harvest and winegrowers a reduced harvest.
Other threats are looming over the cognac industry, which fears an increase in Chinese taxes, a retaliatory measure planned by Beijing in response to the customs duties that Brussels wants to impose on imports of electric vehicles manufactured in China. In this context, some are wondering about the risks of a new expression of anger from farmers after the harvest and sowing.
Agricultural sovereignty
Especially M.me Genevard will have to pick up the thread of Draft law on agricultural sovereignty and generational change in agriculture. A text adopted by the Assembly in May, and to which she had also given her voice, like all the Republican deputies present, then suspended following the dissolution of the National Assembly. To prepare this text, she was part of a group of a dozen LR deputies who undertook an agricultural tour of France in contact with the countryside to better understand expectations. An initiative that led to the publication of a white paper on the future of agriculture.
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