Die Fahrt geht am Loire-Fluss entlang, durch baumbestandene Dörfer, deren Ortseingangsschilder auf dem Kopf stehen. Auch in Cléré-les-Pins wurde das Ortsschild umgedreht, aus Protest gegen eine Politik, bei der alles kopfsteht. So jedenfalls schildert es Landwirt Nicolas Sterlin, der im Namen des Landwirtschaftsverbands FNSEA zur Wahlkampfveranstaltung eingeladen hat, einer der wichtigsten in dem Wahlkreis. Der 5. Bezirk erstreckt sich über einen Teil der Stadt Tours und über ländliches Gebiet bis zum berühmten Weinort Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil.
„Was schlagen Sie vor, um die Lage der Bauern zu verbessern?“, lautet Sterlins Frage an die fünf Kandidaten, die nach dem 7. Juli in die Nationalversammlung einziehen wollen. Dann trägt er eine lange Liste von Forderungen vor, um das Höfesterben zu beenden, den Bauern „würdige“ Einkommen zu garantieren und die Auflagen- und Normenflut zu verringern.
Die Verunsicherung über die chaotischen politischen Verhältnisse ist im Foyer rural, dem leicht verstaubten Festsaal von Cléré-les-Pins, sofort spürbar. In dem katholisch geprägten Wahlkreis könnte die Stimmung dieses Mal zugunsten des Rassemblement National (RN) umschlagen. 2017 stimmten die Wähler begeistert für die politische Seiteneinsteigerin Sabine Thillaye, die für Präsident Macrons En marche 58 Prozent erzielte und die jahrzehntelange Vormachtstellung der konservativen Republikaner (LR) beendete.
Die Deutsche aus Remscheid hatte sich als junge Frau in einen Franzosen verliebt und in der Nähe von Tours mit ihm eine Familie und eine erfolgreiche Werbeagentur gegründet. Als die drei Kinder groß waren, wollte sie ihrer Wahlheimat etwas zurückgeben, sich für Europa engagieren und ging in die Politik. Im Juni 2022 setzte sich die Deutsch-Französin abermals mit 59 Prozent der Stimmen durch, aber dieses Mal gegen eine Herausforderin von Le Pens Partei.
Von Bürgernähe keine Spur
Im Saal schlägt der 65-jährigen Abgeordneten der Unmut über die Regierung in Paris entgegen, auch wenn sie mit Kritik am politischen System nicht spart. „Madame Sabine“, wie sie einige Landwirte anreden, beklagt ein schwaches Parlament, das zu viele Gesetze beschließt und zu wenig die Regierung kontrollieren kann. „Wir müssen unsere Arbeitsmethode dringend ändern“, sagt sie, „wir brauchen heute viel stärkere Parlamentarier, die in der Lage sind, sich manchmal auch zu widersetzen, wenn es um das Wohl ihres Territoriums geht.“
She also advocates that the effects of laws be assessed more thoroughly, instead of constantly initiating new changes to the law. She advocates the introduction of proportional representation so that the country's ability to compromise is strengthened and political forces can work together seriously. “Our collective failure is that we have not managed to create a viable alliance of moderate forces in the middle,” she later said in an interview with the FAZ. She attributes this to the “society of mistrust” that has developed in France because far too many decisions are made from above. In the monarchical presidential system, proximity to the people is still an alien concept.
A farmer in a red sweater, who introduces himself as Richard, thanks the MP for her openness. “You said that after voting on a law, you don't know when the implementing decrees will follow and how they will be worded,” he says, “that's why people ultimately don't believe in anything anymore.” Politicians make promises and then nothing happens. “The Minister of Agriculture said on March 15 that we would receive aid immediately. There are organic farmers in the room who still haven't received anything. Premiums for growing vegetables were promised, but they were postponed three times,” complains Richard. “That's perhaps the reason why our country is in this state now.”
RN candidate wants to seal off French market
After the farmers' protests in the spring, the Prime Minister visited the local FNSEA association head Sterlin at his pick-your-own farm Les Jardins de Meslay, where raspberries, currants, carnations, bluebells and fresh vegetables can currently be harvested. In record time, a law “on the orientation of agriculture” was passed in first reading at the end of May, which contained many answers. However, the unexpected dissolution of parliament on June 9th brought the legislative process to a halt.
Macron's coup makes it difficult for MPs to defend their record. Thillaye speaks of a “new software” for agriculture that would be immediately reintroduced to parliament after an election victory. The bill declares agriculture to be a “high common good” and the security of food supplies to be the goal. “But food sovereignty does not mean that we can live in autarky,” she says.
This is exactly what their political opponent is promising. The RN candidate François Ducamp wants to overturn all free trade agreements and seal off the French market with customs barriers to agricultural products that do not meet French standards. School canteens and all state institutions should be obliged to serve at least 80 percent French products. He wants to lift all requirements for pesticides, fertilizers and water storage, because farmers themselves know best what is necessary. Ducamp walks in circles during his speech and repeatedly lets his heels click on the wooden floor.
“Never set foot on a field”
He is 23 years old, with a childlike face under his shock of blond hair. He dropped out of law school after completing his bachelor's degree and works for the regional council. Ducamp stirs up anger in the room, describing being a farmer as “the most complicated job in the world”. You are dependent on the weather, you can never sleep in or go on holiday and you receive a miserable pension. “It means that you are stressed your whole life,” he says.
Then he rails against “the people who come from the elite ENA, who have never set foot in a field and who tell the farmers how to do things.” 80 percent of the farms in the Indre-et-Loire department have disappeared in the past 50 years.
He wants to become a member of parliament to put an end to the demise of farms and the despair of farmers. He mentions a cattle breeder from the farm next door to his parents who committed suicide. He accuses Thillaye of preferring to travel “to Estonia” instead of looking after the farmers. He accuses her of acting against “common sense” as a “Macronist”.
The election campaign is also about hedges
“Dear friends, I am not a Macronist,” Thillaye defends herself, “I have always fought for ideas, not for a person.” The trip to Estonia was one of her tasks as chair of the European Affairs Committee. Thillaye was Wolfgang Schäuble's most important ally in France in establishing the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly, and she was co-founder of the Assembly. In the Defense Committee, she is now fighting for Franco-German armament projects such as the joint fighter aircraft and battle tank system, which Le Pen wants to end.
In the Franco-German Assembly, Thillaye co-chaired the working group on foreign and security policy to improve Franco-German understanding in times of war. But this concrete work for the benefit of the European unification process counts for little on this heated election night. The issue is hedges and the question of whether she thinks it is right that farmers are not allowed to trim them between March and August. “Yes or no,” a farmer presses her. He does not want to hear explanations about bird protection. He is concerned with demonstrating the “absurdity” of the rules that are raining down on farmers from Paris and Brussels.
Cereal farmer Jean-Claude Robin cautiously points out that around half of the department's agricultural production is exported. “You should know that France is the fifth largest exporter of wheat in the world,” he says to the RN candidate. “We have a constant production of consistent quality, we have the know-how to guarantee this.” “How will our exports continue if you put up customs and other barriers?” asks Robin. Ducamp denies dependence on the world market, he believes that the answer is France. He does not explain how the minimum price on French agricultural products will be financed.
A touch of yellow vest debates
The Republican candidate, Constance Bales, is a 21-year-old student and is clearly overwhelmed by the issue. The candidate of the left-wing Popular Front has sent her deputy, also a student, who dreams of sustainable development for agriculture. Discussions continue in the room until shortly before midnight, and there is a hint of the civil debates that followed the Yellow Vest protests hanging over the exchange. The complaint is repeatedly raised that the political system is not adequate to the challenges of the times.
In an industrial area on the outskirts of the village of Fondettes lies the new headquarters of the company Valeurs Culinaires (culinary values), which offers freshly cooked meals made from local products for school canteens and homes for the elderly and disabled. For MP Thillaye, the visit to the company is like a home game. The company's founder, Matthieu Lestrez, speaks enthusiastically about the growth opportunities he hopes for if the economic climate remains as stable as it has been over the past seven years.
Valeurs Culinaires has grown from 12 to 85 employees within four years. The concept of moving away from frozen food and warmed-up food from large kitchens is convincing more and more mayors and heads of old people's and disabled homes. Lestrez works closely with farmers in the department. Mayor Daniel Sans-Chagrin is interested.
RN approval as punishment for Macron?
Like most of the 35,000 mayors in France, he leads his municipality of Coteaux-sur-Loire as an independent. “We have no crime, no poverty,” says Sans-Chagrin, “but more than 40 percent voted for RN in the European elections.” That was a punishment for Macron, who talks about Europe in an increasingly detached manner and wants to send soldiers to Ukraine without considering the French. “But I can't imagine that people really want the RN in power,” says the mayor. Then he shakes the hand of the mayor of Pau, François Bayrou, who has come to help with the campaign.
The leader of the bourgeois-liberal center party Mouvement démocrate played a key role in Macron becoming president in 2017 with his support. After praising Thillaye for her sense of compromise and her tireless efforts, Bayrou cast a worried eye on the country. The rift between the political elite and the citizens is alarming. He declined to take up a ministerial post in January because he felt that President Macron did not understand the dramatic situation.
“This development has been brewing for a long time,” Bayrou told the FAZ. He believes that an election victory for the RN is possible. “Either a catastrophe occurs that will affect everyone,” he says. Or there is no absolute majority and a little German spirit of compromise must finally enter Paris so that the moderate forces come together. Coalition negotiations like those in Berlin are not to be expected because de Gaulle has disempowered the parties. But an alliance of the willing is conceivable. “This time everything is at stake,” says Bayrou before he travels on to the next election campaign.
