France sees NGO protests against emergency agricultural law over water and pesticide rules

Early Thursday, around twenty activists from the Action Justice Climat coalition tried to attach protest posters to a fence adjoining the French Senate. Their slogans included “Duplomb: Non, c’est non”, “Nourrir pas détruire” and “Pour des lois qui protègent”. Security personnel quickly removed the materials and halted the tagging.

The demonstrators oppose a draft emergency agricultural law that, despite government opposition, re‑introduces two neonicotinoid pesticides—acetamipride and flupyradifurone—authorized elsewhere in Europe but banned in France because of their danger to bees. The bill also relaxes water‑management rules in favour of farmers, drawing criticism from the ecology minister Monique Barbut, the Medef business lobby and local water‑supply authorities. NGOs have called for further mobilisation in the coming days to prevent the law from endangering French water access and agricultural sustainability.