PARIS, Dec 19: The majority of French citizens support the farmers’ protests, which began amid an outbreak of lumpy skin disease, and do not trust the government and its policy on resolving the crisis caused by the unrest, according to a study conducted by Odoxa and Backbone Consulting for the Figaro newspaper.
According to the survey results, 78 percent of respondents support the farmers’ protests, which are centered in the southwestern part of the country. The same number of respondents are convinced that Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s government has “failed” to deal with the crisis since it began, the survey showed.
The opinion that the government is unable to cope with the current situation is shared by the majority of respondents who sympathize with almost all of the country’s leading political parties, the report said. Only among supporters of French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Renaissance party does a majority (62 percent) believe that the government is handling the crisis, it added. The highest percentage of respondents who believe that the government is not coping with the situation (89 percent) was recorded among supporters of the right-wing National Rally party led by Marine Le Pen, according to the results.
Most respondents are convinced that none of the country’s leading political parties protect the interests of farmers. At the same time, 35 percent of respondents believe that the National Rally protects the interests of farmers the most, while Renaissance protects them the least (16 percent of respondents), according to the poll.
In addition, 65 percent of respondents opposed the ratification of the European Union’s free trade agreement with Mercosur, the report added. The highest number of opponents to the ratification of the agreement with South American trading bloc Mercosur, which is 83%, was recorded among respondents who sympathize with the left-wing Socialist Party, and the lowest percentage, which is 50 percent, among supporters of Renaissance.
The survey was conducted online from December 17-18 among 1,005 adult French citizens. No margin of error was provided.
On Wednesday, BFMTV reported, citing a source in the security sector, that around 2,500 French farmers had joined protests against the authorities’ policy to combat an outbreak of lumpy skin disease.
On December 14, ICI radio reported that farmers in eastern France hung a calf carcass from a tree near the former office of French Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard, protesting government-mandated livestock culling amid an outbreak of lumpy skin disease.
The culling of livestock was mandated in affected herds earlier in December following lumpy skin disease outbreaks in several French departments. Genevard said the government would vaccinate nearly 1 million cows as part of efforts to combat the outbreak. Although lumpy skin disease poses no risk to humans, it causes skin lesions and reduces milk production in livestock. (UNI)
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