Rural coordination, the union which upsets the campaigns and wants to dethrone the FNSEA

In one year, their yellow cups have become the best known in France. Whether on tractors starting from Agen (Lot-et-Garonne) to go to Paris, at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe where they deposited a wreath in tribute to the farmers who commit suicide, or even on The television sets where they express their anger, the farmers of rural coordination (CR) mark the spirits. This yellow wave, the union hopes to see it swept in the ballot boxes on February 6, 2025, the day of the results of the agricultural professional elections. Every six years, this ballot redraws the forces in the 102 French Chambers of Agriculture.

The training in the lead can then guide and finance the agricultural policy which is deployed in the departments and regions. Today, the FNSEA, a hegemonic union since the post-war period, controls 97. This “co-management” with the state exasperates a growing part of the campaigns. “Sixty years since they have been at the helm, as many years as our agriculture is dying,” says José Pérez, co-president of the rural coordination of Lot-et-Garonne, who has been holding the Chamber of Agriculture for twenty-four years. Hand -of -hand pruning shears in his prune orchards, the 44 -year -old arborist has a frank verb when he describes his suffering sector. He says he is galvanized by the support of the French. This winter, tractors’ convoys crisscrossed the country and 88 %* of citizens estimated that the protest movement was justified. In the process, the organization has garnered memberships and aspires to a national destiny to stem the “peasant genocide”.

Defend the peasantry

The forecourt of the Agen Chamber of Agriculture sets the tone: on panels faded by the rain, a list of names recalls the number of Lot-et-Garonnais who died for France in 1914-1918. “Because they were peasants, of course!” », Says Serge Bousquet-Cassagne, thunderous president CR of the Chamber of Agriculture since 2013, which has chosen to install this memorial. Allegory with peasant erosion for the last fifty years has been assumed: since 1970, the number of farms in France has increased from 1,588,000 to 390,000 in 2020, a decrease of 75 %. “The peasantry is one of the foundations of our European and Judeo-Christian civilization, we will not die in silence! »Launches the old rugby player, emblematic figure of the movement. With 1,350 members, the CR47 antenna is campaigning with farmers in neighboring departments by organizing “aperitifs in the countryside”, where sausage, pâté and red wine are shared.

But these debonary operations and the participants’ bonhomie contrasts with the punching actions, sometimes violent or illegal. As in the case of Lac de Caussade. This was built by activists from Lot-et-Garonne without authorization in 2019, and funded by the Chamber of Agriculture. Put before the fait accompli, the procrastinated state and, for five years, the water has irrigated the fields of around thirty operators. Sentenced by justice, Serge Bousquet-Cassagne prefers to celebrate the human adventure of the “builders” of this lake blessed by the deacon of the parish, “as in the times of the rogations”, this Catholic tradition which wants the parish priest of the village to bless field work.

Sovereignty and traditions

The yellow caps of the Southwest, from the earth which saw the Poujadist movement leaving in the 1950s, defended a precise vision: sovereign agriculture, rooted in its traditions and released from the environmental constraints imposed by the State. For many, original sin dates back to 1992, the date of the reform of the common agricultural policy. “Before, we were paid for what we produced, the prices were guaranteed, but since then, we have been infused with aid,” explains Christian, sixties. A dissident of the FNSEA, he remembers the slogan in vogue at the birth of rural coordination: “prices, not bonuses”. Today, we hear: “Get us peace, let us work”. A message to the populist accents that feeds the union’s opponents, accusing him of being the relay of the RN. The visit of Jordan Bardella, the president of the Lepéniste party, on a farm alongside Serge Bousquet-Cassagne, in November, attests to this proximity, denied by José Pérez. “The union is apolitical, our farmers vote for anyone they want! These are the elected officials of the RN or other parties that run after us, not the opposite. In 2019, rural coordination had attracted 21 % of voters and conquered two new departments: Vienne and Haute-Vienne. This year, carried by the momentum of the southwest, the union hopes to cross a milestone and upset the established order.

* IFOP, Farmers’ image barometer 2024.