In France, one month after the adoption of the Ceta, the agreement continues to polarize. Several offices of the political party La República en Marcha have been damaged in retaliation while farmers and environmentalists maintain the pressure.
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<p><span><span lang="ES-MX"><span>While French President Emmanuel Macron tries to open a new page of his term after the 'Yellow Vests' crisis, one issue remains open: the <span>Global Economic and Commercial Agreement between the European Union and Canada</span></span></span> (Keta)</span>
Approved on July 23 by the National Assembly, the treaty, which provides for the elimination of customs duties on 98% of products sold between the two areas, has caused a strong controversy between French parliamentarians. Some believe that it does not allow to effectively control imported products and that it will generate unfair competition for farmers.
Agricultural unions and environmental groups continue to pressure the Government to revoke this controversial agreement.
Attacks on offices of the French majority political party
On August 14, Gilles Le Gendre, president of the La República en Marcha (LREM) group in the National Assembly, denounced the degradation of the party office, thus threatening some of his deputies. About thirty such incidents have been recorded, according to the elected representative of LREM, who reported an "extremely dangerous escalation" of these events.
Several LREM deputies, such as Mireille Clapot and Carole Grandjean, were also victims of reprisals for their vote in favor of CETA. Graffiti and posters now adorn their offices …
When France 24 asked him, Jean-René Cazeneuve, deputy of LREM of the Gers, also said that he had been attacked: "My stay was covered with a tarp by the farmers. They left me a message of insult. It is a clear response to my vote. for the CETA ".
In a tweet, he did not hide his anger: "To all the farmers who are against CETA, I say:" Tomorrow, let's stop all trade with Canada! "And we'll see what happens."
The deputy deplores the increase in intimidation attempts: "There is a lot of misinformation around CETA. That can lead to this type of overflow that threatens democracy. I do pedagogy, I teach my farmers that the agreement will allow them to export more and that Canada is an ally with whom we can have a reasoned and intelligent dialogue. "
Despite the efforts of the elected representatives of LREM, the French remain mostly skeptical about the CETA issue. According to an Ifop survey conducted in July for the newspaper 'Fakir', 66% of respondents reject the content of the agreement. The latter could lead to the importation into France of products such as meat from animals fed with animal flours or genetically modified salmon.
A bitter political debate, even within the majority
The CETA vote in the National Assembly has raised concerns Between the political class. While many opposition deputies strongly rejected the text, several members of the presidential majority also expressed doubts and criticisms.
During the vote, nine LREM deputies opposed the text. It constitutes a record for the ruling party, which until now had had the habit of voting the texts in unison. About 50 elected representatives of the majority abstained.
Jean-René Cazeneuve regrets these divisions: "I believe that we have the right to express all possible criticisms in the previous phase, the debate should be as open as possible. But once the position is determined, voting against weakens the majority" .
However, the deputy of LREM considers that the real culprits for the CETA puzzle are the Socialist Party and the Republicans: "They have behaved in a regrettable way. They negotiated this treaty and now they shoot us by political calculations, especially the right, that goes against their convictions by rejecting the agreement. "
In a forum published in July, 25 deputies explained their opposition to CETA, stating in particular that the treaty does not allow "any control or verification of the presence of growth hormones" in meat imported from Canada.
A context unfavorable to the serene development of CETA
Negotiated at European level, CETA was very complicated to implement. It took seven years of discussions between the European Union and Canada. But finally, the vote in the National Assembly took place in an unfavorable context, just after the long crisis of the 'Yellow Vests' and during an ecological awareness.
Approved despite the warnings of former Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot and the speech of the young activist Greta Thunberg – who came on the same day of the vote to question the Assembly about the climate emergency – the vote provoked an avalanche of criticism against the most.
"To consider that world trade is today a source of the future, with climate change and the environmental constraints imposed on us, it is an aberration," says Denis Perreau, national secretary in charge of livestock in the agricultural union Cpeasant onfederation.
"I work in Burgundy, where I have a flock, and there we face a drought situation for the third year in a row. We have to put an end to such agreements because they are harmful to the environment and threaten small producers," he said.
For his part, Jean-René Cazeneuve believes that we must move forward and convince: "Political courage does not consist in moving backwards in terms of the situation, but in moving forward and resisting the pressures. The ecological transition will make all decisions very complex, there are threatened employment problems that must be taken into account. A fair balance must be found. "
Flexibility to cancel the agreement
Applied partially since September 21, 2017, CETA is nevertheless far from being definitely adopted. The treaty must not only be approved by the Senate in the fall, but must obtain ratification from all European countries to be fully implemented.
Meanwhile, the fight continues for anti-CETA activists, such as Denis Perreau: "We believe that the text will not go through the Senate because of the opposition of the Republicans and that it will return to the Assembly. Our strategy in the Peasant Confederation will be meet with the majority of abstentionists to convince them to vote against and thus block the text. We have hope. "
In Europe, nothing is defined. A large number of countries, including Austria, Spain, Finland, Portugal and the United Kingdom, have already ratified the agreement, but with only one opposition, the text, in its current form, could be rejected at European level.
