French Assembly votes 296-224 to allow derogatory use of two banned pesticides, PM Lecornu accuses Greens of 'lies'

The vote and the law's content

The French National Assembly adopted the agricultural emergency law in the early hours of 21 July 2026 by 296 votes to 224, after a heated session marked by procedural obstruction and multiple suspensions. The text, spanning nearly 70 articles, covers water storage, livestock expansion, wolf predation and, most controversially, the possibility of derogatory reintroduction of two neonicotinoid insecticides: acetamiprid and flupyradifurone. Both are banned in France but authorised elsewhere in the European Union. Article 2 quater of the law empowers the national health security agency ANSES to grant temporary, conditional derogations for specific struggling crop sectors. Acetamiprid, banned since 2020, could be used on hazelnuts; flupyradifurone, banned since 2019, could be applied to sugar beet, apple and cherry trees for up to three years.

Political clash in the chamber

During the final questions to the government before the summer recess, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu launched a sharp attack on the Ecologist group. He accused its president Cyrielle Chatelain of "lies" and of being "ready to say anything to scare and maintain anger" for "purely political reasons" tied to her alliance with La France insoumise.

You are ready to slander, to say anything to scare. It is unacceptable.

Chatelain had denounced the neurotoxicity of the substances, their impact on fertility and the rise in paediatric cancers, insisting that "the precautionary principle must prevail." She also criticised Lecornu for blocking a vote on an amendment to delete the article, and pointed to a decree of 8 July 2025 that she said placed ANSES under the Agriculture Ministry's control. Lecornu retorted that the law explicitly states that only ANSES can authorise a derogation. LFI deputy Anne Stambach-Terrenoir went further, shouting "You are poisoners" and citing alerts from the Order of Physicians about major risks to the population.

Farmers and beekeepers react

In a sugar beet field in Mainvilliers (Eure-et-Loir), farmer Alexandre Pelé, vice-president of the Confédération générale des planteurs de betteraves (CGB), showed reporters plants yellowed by jaundice virus, transmitted by aphids. He estimated nearly half his crop was affected and welcomed the prospect of using flupyradifurone, arguing that French growers faced unfair competition from European neighbours where the molecule is permitted.

I am not here to judge whether a product is dangerous or not. There are competent authorities for that. I use products that are authorised. If they are banned, they are banned, but they are banned for everyone.

Beekeeper Cyril Way from Essonne warned that both insecticides act on the nervous system of insects, causing disorientation in bees.

Once exposed to these products, bees no longer know how to return to the hive.

An organic farmer in the Nord region, Gaëtan Doisy, demonstrated an alternative: long crop rotations (beet does not return to the same plot for eight years) and black soap against aphids.

Environmental and health warnings

François Veillerette, spokesperson for the environmental association Générations Futures, denounced "a form of contempt" by the government towards its own majority. He noted that the government refused to put to a vote several amendments tabled by deputies from the presidential camp that sought to remove the pesticide article. "The government exercised a form of blackmail on its own majority: either vote for the whole text or reject it," he said. Veillerette claimed the government was obeying the main farmers' union FNSEA "to the letter," which he called "completely staggering."

Government divisions and next steps

The measure has split the executive. Ecology Minister Monique Barbut, personally opposed to the reintroduction of acetamiprid, could resign if the text is adopted, according to her entourage. She met Lecornu for fifty minutes at midday on 21 July and left without commenting. Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard defended the law, insisting that "the text does not reintroduce acetamiprid" and that "it is science that decides, not politics." The Senate was expected to vote on the bill later on 21 July, with adoption considered likely.