Posted on Dec. 2021 at 18:27
After a year full of twists and turns, the time has come. The collective of anti-pesticide mayors held its general assembly on December 15, in Sceaux, in the Hauts-de-Seine. The opportunity to prepare for the coming year but also to appoint a new president. Founded in January 2020, the collective has so far been chaired by Daniel Cueff, the mayor of Langouët (Ille-et-Vilaine), who founded it. Having failed to run in the last municipal elections, the Breton elected official has relinquished his seat to Florence Presson, Sceaux’s deputy mayor and until then vice-president.
The year 2021 was marked by the cancellations by the courts of almost all the anti-pesticide decrees taken by the mayors of the collective. These decrees aimed to prohibit the use of phytosanitary products, such as glyphosate, on the territory of their municipalities, both in condominiums, on public roads or on farms.
Different strategy
After a first cancellation of these municipal decrees by the courts, several mayors took new ones, with a different strategy. They then considered pesticides as waste, which it was therefore up to the municipality to manage. But these orders were also rejected.
“The decisions of the administrative courts are not well aligned”, deplores Florence Presson. “That of Cergy has revoked certain decrees, believing that pesticides cannot be considered as waste. That of Melun recognizes that it is waste but considers that they still fall within the competence of the State, not of the municipalities ”, she explains. Faced with these inconsistencies, the mayors of Sceaux, Nanterre, Gennevilliers, Malakoff and Bagneux filed an appeal on December 21 before the administrative court of Cergy.
Apart from this last resort, the year 2022 will be devoted to raising the awareness of presidential candidates about pesticides. “We are going to challenge them on their proposals to support farmers who want to stop using pesticides or use alternative products”, specifies Florence Presson.
Finally, letters were sent to the President of the Republic to the Prime Minister as well as to Ministers Barbara Pompili (Ecological Transition) and Julien Denormandie (Agriculture) to make them aware of the links between pesticides and air quality. Objective: to encourage Emmanuel Macron to take a position on this subject during the French presidency of the European Union, from January to July next.
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