French Ecological Transition Minister Monique Barbot announced on Wednesday that she “will submit her resignation today” to President Emmanuel Macron in protest against the re-use of harmful pesticides.
However, Macron did not accept his resignation, and Barbut will remain in his post due to “the urgency of addressing the consequences of climate change”, his team said in comments carried by the AFP news agency.
Government spokesperson Maud Brejan later said that Barbat would remain in post.
What did Barbut say about his resignation?
In a post on LinkedIn, Barbut wrote that “contrary to commitments made to me, the government blocked any debate on removing this measure,” adding that “an environmental blowback was too much” since she was appointed last October.
“Politics is not my world, and if that’s what politics is about, it certainly never will be,” said the former head of WWF France and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
What is France’s pesticide bill?
Barbut’s statement comes just after legislation approved a bill that would allow the pesticides acetamiprid and flupyradifuron to be brought back into use. They have been banned in France since 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Scientists say the chemicals are dangerous to human health and harmful to the bee populations that make agriculture possible in the first place.
Supporters of the bill argued that France’s sugar beet, apple and hazelnut farmers need the pesticides to compete against their EU counterparts.
These substances are not banned in the European Union but some member states limit their use.
Edited by: Rob Turner
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