"The adoption of the Duplomb law constitutes an unprecedented moment of democratic rupture"

Without hair or eyebrows, her face emaciated, still marked by the ordeal of the disease and its treatment, a woman watched from one of the balconies of the Palais-Bourbon, Tuesday, July 8, the solemn vote on the bill of Senator Laurent Duplomb (Les Républicains, Haute-Loire) , "aimed at lifting the constraints on practicing the profession of farmer." Fleur Breteau, in her forties, founder of the Cancer Colère collective, was invited by elected officials from the left to attend the vote, alongside other members of civil society. When the text was adopted by the deputies of the blue-brown arc and their deputies from the presidential party, to victorious applause, Fleur Breteau shouted: "You are the allies of cancer and we will make it known!"

In response, as reported by journalists present, laughter rippled through the Chamber. This is what a majority of the national representation had to oppose, that day, to the dismay and indignation of this young woman and, through her, to the concern of civil society and all the scientific communities concerned: casual hilarity, contemptuous cynicism, and locker room virilism.

Fleur Breteau's outcry cannot be understood if we simply say what the deputies voted for. Above all, we must explain who they voted against. They voted, of course, against every environmental protection association in France, but that's not very surprising. Above all, they voted against twenty-two learned medical societies, against the League Against Cancer, against the administrators and staff of the National Agency for Health Safety, against France's third-largest agricultural union, against the Foundation for Medical Research, against twenty mutual insurance companies, mutualist groups, as well as the Federation of Mutual Insurance Companies of France, representing several million policyholders, against the Scientific Council of the CNRS, against the Federation of Drinking Water Authorities, against hundreds of doctors and researchers who signed op-eds and open letters intuitu personae .

You have 64.02% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.