For several months now, the French executive branch has fueled or allowed to flourish an atmosphere of hostility toward state agencies responsible for environmental and/or health protection. The wave of hostility, which has come even from the offices of the president and the prime minister, has included spreading false information, questioning the integrity of public officials, giving de facto carte blanche to the perpetrators of violence against them, threats of drastic budget cuts or even closure, and plans for reform to undermine their independence from economic powers.
At the end of November 2024, farmers’ demonstrations outside the headquarters of the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES), demanding the agency’s closure, received the explicit support of Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard – who was kept in her post the next month when Prime Minister François Bayrou formed his government.
The blows dealt to the pesticide regulator are no longer merely symbolic. The amendment presented on January 27 by the government to the bill proposed by Senator Laurent Duplomb (Les Républicains, conservative) – titled “Lifting constraints on the farming profession” – has caused consternation within the ranks of the health agency. Many of its leaders fear that the agency’s responsibilities will be turned upside down and that its expert appraisal work will be placed under the control of industry and agricultural unions. The French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME) has not been spared either: In both the Assemblée Nationale and the Sénat, several members of the right are calling to shut it down.
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