"Ecology Strikes Back": Anti-Duplomb Law Petition Collects More Than 700,000 Signatures, Left Hails "Unprecedented Mobilization"

A first, and many reactions. This Saturday, July 19, the petition launched by 23-year-old student Eléonore Pattery against the Duplomb law and its highly controversial measure to reintroduce a pesticide reached the goal of 500,000 signatures on the National Assembly website and even recorded more than 700,000 signatures this Sunday morning, July 20.

An unprecedented figure, to which many political figures reacted on social media. "500,000 signatures in a few days against Duplomb/Poison? Too easy," wrote Marine Tondelier, national secretary of the Ecologists, on X.

"Do you know why? Because 83% of people are against these pesticides that destroy health and biodiversity."

"In the face of lobbies, there are millions of us: ecology is fighting back," she added, calling for more people to sign the petition.

On X, Boris Vallaud welcomed an "unprecedented but essential mobilization against a law that threatens our health." The leader of the Socialist deputies asked the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, "and other group presidents, to include this petition on the Duplomb Law on the Assembly's agenda as soon as the new term begins."

"The President of the Republic must take this mobilisation into account and decide not to promulgate the Duplomb law," declared Delphine Batho , former minister and Green and Social MP for Deux-Sèvres on BFMTV.

"Thanks to your mobilization, the National Assembly will once again have to debate this text which endangers our planet and our health!" reacted La France Insoumise, in a message on X relayed by its leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

On LinkedIn, Éléonore Pattery, who initiated the petition, sent her "congratulations" to the signatories.

"Thank you to everyone who signed, shared, and above all... who believed in this fight. Thank you also to the people who laid the groundwork over the past few weeks to make all this possible."

"It's time to revolutionize the world today, to build the peace of tomorrow," she added. "Bravo for your courage."

Conversely, Arnaud Rousseau, the head of the FNSEA, the leading agricultural union, which strongly supports the Duplomb law, believes that French agriculture will "disappear" if it is imposed "higher standards" than those of its European neighbors.

For the Confédération Paysanne, the second largest agricultural union, the petition shows that the Duplomb law "is not at all supported by society."

"We're going from problem to problem. When we no longer have farmers, there will be no need to file petitions," Christian Convers, secretary general of the Rural Coordination, told AFP.

"Starting all over again would be a huge waste of time and a losing outcome for the agricultural world," Quentin Le Guillous, secretary general of the Young Farmers Association, told AFP.

Adopted on July 8 by Parliament, the Duplomb law provides in particular for the reintroduction, by way of derogation and under conditions, of acetamiprid, a pesticide from the neonicotinoid family, banned in France but authorized in Europe.

On July 11, left-wing MPs referred the matter to the Constitutional Council, deeming the text incompatible with environmental protection and the right to health.

Initiated by Senators Laurent Duplomb (LR) and Franck Menonville (UDI, centre), the bill adopted by 316 votes to 223 during a tense final session on Tuesday in the Assembly, is presented as one of the responses to the anger of farmers in the winter of 2024.