Politics: Petition against the Duplomb law nears 1 million signatures

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.
The petition against the Duplomb Law approached the one million signature mark on the National Assembly's website on Sunday, rekindling disputes surrounding this highly contested text, which could be at the heart of an unprecedented debate before Parliament. Launched by a student on July 10, the petition had reached 860,000 signatures by midday on Sunday.
Adopted on July 8 by Parliament, the Duplomb Law provides, among other things, for the reintroduction, by way of derogation and subject to conditions, of acetamiprid, a pesticide from the neonicotinoid family, banned in France but authorized in Europe. This product is in demand by beet and hazelnut producers, who believe they have no alternative to combat pests and are subject to unfair competition.
On the other hand, beekeepers warn of "a bee killer." Its effects on humans are also a source of concern, even if the risks remain uncertain due to a lack of large-scale studies.
"Unfair competition""The opposition is speaking out. Behind this, there will surely be a debate that will be organized in the Assembly to unfortunately repeat what has been said for six months," noted Les Républicains Senator Laurent Duplomb on franceinfo on Sunday. The author of this law, which authorizes the reintroduction of a pesticide banned in France but authorized in Europe, is worried about "unfair competition" for French farmers if his text is not implemented.
Once the threshold of 500,000 signatures reached on Saturday, and provided they come from at least 30 overseas departments or communities, the Conference of Presidents of the National Assembly may decide to organize a debate in public session. However, the law will not be reexamined in substance, much less possibly repealed. No petition has ever been debated in the chamber in the history of the Fifth Republic.
The President of the National Assembly said she was "in favor" of organizing a debate on the text. "The French people have signed this petition. We will be able to organize a debate on this subject as soon as the parliamentary session resumes. It's a topic that will be addressed at the Conference of Presidents, but I am obviously in favor of it," she said from Muret (Haute-Garonne), where she was attending the start of the 15th stage of the Tour de France.
The text by 23-year-old student Eléonore Pattery has generated unprecedented enthusiasm , widely shared on social media by figures such as Pierre Niney and left-wing MPs. The pace of signatures accelerated this weekend. This law "is a scientific, ethical, environmental, and health aberration," the student writes in her petition.
Renounce promulgationThis petition has rekindled the quarrels between opponents and supporters of the law, who had been strongly mobilized during its examination. The President and the Prime Minister "must listen to the popular anger against this law being forced through. They must abandon its promulgation," wrote Manuel Bompard , coordinator of La France insoumise, on X. All left-wing parties called on Saturday for this unprecedented debate to be held. "In the face of lobbies, there are millions of us: ecology is fighting back," Marine Tondelier, head of the Ecologists, had welcomed on X.
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Conversely, Arnaud Rousseau, the head of the FNSEA, the leading agricultural union, which is very much in favour of the Duplomb law, believes that French agriculture will "disappear" if it is imposed "higher standards" than those of its European neighbours.
A contested adoptionThe petition also calls for "a democratic review of the conditions under which the Duplomb law was adopted." In Parliament, it had indeed had a rushed process with a prior motion of rejection , tabled by its own rapporteur Julien Dive (LR), who was nevertheless in favor of the text.
The MP justified this by denouncing the "obstruction" of the left, which had tabled several thousand amendments. The lack of real debate in the chamber is one of the arguments put forward by the left-wing MPs who filed an appeal on July 11 before the Constitutional Council, hoping to censure it for procedural errors, which could prevent its promulgation.
Le Républicain Lorrain