As part of their election campaigns, the French Presidential candidates will be stopping at the annual Paris farm fair, where farmers are showing growing support for the far-right.
After years of difficulty in the farming sector, Le Pen’s anti-EU and anti-globalisation rhetoric strikes a chord with many French farmers, who were once faithful voters to the mainstream Conservatives.
A Cevipof poll for Le Monde newspaper published earlier this month showed 35 percent of farmers who intend on voting will back Le Pen in the election. This is compared to 26 percent of the general population.
“Lots of us farmers are pinning our hopes on Marine,” said dairy and poultry farmer Mickael Thomas. “We see her with farmers more than other candidates.”
The same Cevipof poll also showed farmers are beginning to give up on politicians after constantly feeling let down and forgotten. 51 percent of the 300 surveyed said they would not vote.
“Farmers were always the French people who voted the most. They voted like they went to mass,” said sociologist Francois Purseigle. “What’s surprising about this survey is that they might not go.”
French farmer Mr Hourdel plans to vote for Le Pen due to her anti-EU status.
“The EU has tied us up in a straitjacket of regulations so we can’t compete with other member states like Spain, where the same regulations don’t apply,” he said. “The only candidate who’s talking about confronting this situation head-on, really changing it, is Marine Le Pen.”
Luc Smessaert, deputy head of France’s largest farmers’ union, the FNSEA, said that leaving the EU would only make things worse for French farmers.
“Exiting the EU would be a catastrophe. It’s true that 2016 was a black year, the worst we’ve suffered since the war. Cereals, livestock, dairy and fruit were all affected, with bad weather and poor harvests adding to the misery, as well as bird flu forcing us to slaughter ducks, but the answer isn’t to quit the EU.”
Recent polls show Le Pen placing first in a first round of France’s presidential election in April and losing in the second round.