The ritual is immutable. Patting the backs of cows, tasting “100% French” and responding to arrests: Emmanuel Macron inaugurates, on Saturday February 25 at the Porte de Versailles, in Paris, the 59th edition of the International Agricultural Show with, on the program, a long stroll between the stands, intended to take the pulse of rural France and the country, in the midst of a showdown over pension reform.

Arrived at the Salon around 7:40 a.m., for a meeting with players in the French fishing industry, alongside the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau, the Head of State will officially kick off the largest closed in France shortly before 9 a.m., in the presence of the muse of the show, Ovalie, a Salers cow with a mahogany coat.

After an express appearance last year, at the very start of the war in Ukraine, and an event canceled in 2021 due to Covid-19, the President of the Republic is renewing with this major event as popular with politicians as with the public. . He has to spend his whole day in the aisles of the Show – he had spent almost thirteen hours there in 2020 – in contact with professionals in livestock, crops, fishing and the agri-food industry, but also with visitors who will flow from the first day.

“Strengthening food sovereignty” and the issue of water

After a first outing to meet the “French people who work early”, Tuesday, at the Rungis market (Val-de-Marne), Emmanuel Macron thus turns a page of several weeks of media diet against the background of the battle for pensions and returns fully in the arena.

A year after the outbreak of war in Ukraine, which caused food prices to soar, and as a chronic drought sets in in France, the Head of State will insist on the need to “strengthen the the country’s food sovereignty and to support farmers in the face of environmental challenges, the Elysee Palace said.

After the historic drought of the summer of 2022, France could again experience many water restrictions from March due to lack of rain since the turn of winter. In the aisles of the Salon, Emmanuel Macron should set “a course” on water savings to be achieved “collectively”, a crucial issue for the agricultural world, according to the Elysée.

This involves “better irrigation”, “more drought-tolerant varieties” and the recycling of wastewater, an area in which France lags far behind its neighbors. He should also mention the construction of water reserves for farmers, a subject that ruffles environmentalists, according to the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau.

Emmanuel Macron, who received professionals in the sector on Thursday and Friday, will also lay down a “framework for a new approach” on phytosanitary products, with in particular less use of pesticides, and will launch a reflection on the breeding of tomorrow. , integrating animal welfare.

Food prices, up 12% over the past year due to the war in Ukraine and soaring energy costs, will also be at the center of attention at Porte de Versailles.

An often unpredictable ritual

The president of the National Federation of Farmers’ Unions (FNSEA), Christiane Lambert, for her part, calls for fewer environmental constraints and recommends the establishment of a food voucher for the most deprived in order to compensate for the surge in prices.

Rite oblige, the muse of the 59th show, the Ovalie cow, of the Salers breed and mahogany dress, will be entitled to a visit from the Head of State from the opening. If Jacques Chirac, the president whose name is most associated with the Salon, boasted of knowing how to “feel the ass of cows” and saw in the salers “masterpieces”, Emmanuel Macron wants to be less lyrical on the subject. . In 2018, he even castigated those who simply “pat the cows”.

His visit will nevertheless be closely scrutinized, the ritual often giving way to the unpredictable. He could in particular be questioned on the unpopular pension reform, which gave rise to heated debates in the National Assembly and will be examined from Tuesday in the Senate, and on the soaring prices. In 2008, Nicolas Sarkozy, taken aback, had launched his famous “break up, poor idiot!” to a visitor who refused to shake his hand.