Empty chairs in pesticide debate

Four chairs remained empty during a pesticide debate organized on October 10, 2026, by Générations futures and the Mutuelles pour la santé planétaire. The right and far-right candidates for the presidential election refused to participate in the pesticide debate organized with their competitors on October 10.

Left struggles on pesticide phase-out

On the left, candidates struggled to agree on a phase-out of pesticides. However, the debate was not really one, as the people present shared the necessity of phasing out pesticides and transitioning as quickly as possible to 100% organic agriculture in France, unlike the absent candidates.

Organizers seek meaningful debate

The organizers had done everything to ensure a real debate of ideas took place, multiplying calls to political parties. "We had to fight, only to be ignored," laments one of the people in charge of the event. Some candidates wore a ribbon during October Rose, a global awareness campaign around breast cancer, and refused to attend a debate that discusses public health, which is contradictory.

Doctors demand attention

General practitioner Judith Louyot had also written an open letter, published in the newspaper La Tribune and signed by 300 other doctors, to address the candidates who had not yet responded to the invitation. She recalled that 23 million French people suffer from a chronic illness or cancer, and that many scientific studies attest to a strong presumption of a link between some of these diseases and exposure to pesticides.

Right and far-right absent

Despite all these appeals, nothing worked. Gabriel Attal, Édouard Philippe, Bruno Retailleau, and Marine Le Pen did not come. A phase-out in five years, 15 years, 24 years? On the left and among ecologists, Delphine Batho (Génération Écologie) was the only candidate to attend in person, in this vegetable storage hangar.

Strong stance on pesticides

Delphine Batho, the Génération Écologie candidate, chose to position herself strongly and was the only one to somewhat challenge her competitors and emphasize the differences in her project from theirs. "There is a major public health issue, which is a public health scandal, and we must get rid of it immediately," she declared.

Five-year phase-out plan

Delphine Batho proposes to "break with the logic of gradual reduction" of pesticides: she wants to transition to 100% organic agriculture in France in just five years. "At the end of the five years, there will be no public subsidies for farms that still use synthetic fertilizers and pesticides," she explicitly stated.

Diverse timelines for phase-out

This question of the pesticide phase-out timeline was, during the two hours and thirty minutes that the debate lasted, the only real point of difference between the various candidates, each sharing the idea that they must be banned in the long term. "We want to eliminate pesticides before 2050," assumed the farmer Benoît Biteau, representing the candidate Marine Tondelier (Les Écologistes), who could not attend due to her childbirth three weeks earlier.

Public funding for transition

He argued that public money should no longer "perfuse" "the agriculture we want to see disappear" and that the State should pay farmers to accompany them in the agroecological transition. "So 2050 is a goal, but if we put all this in place by 2027," Benoît Biteau hopes for a faster phase-out of pesticides.

Vague timelines for some

Same spirit on the Socialist Party side. "The measures we want to take are generally similar. Yes, we need to redirect public funding," said Anna Pic, the party's representative. We say 100% agroecology in fifteen years, which does not mean we will not have stopped pesticides before.

Progressive goals and plans

Amar Bellal, representing Fabien Roussel (French Communist Party) — absent due to the party's national council meeting taking place on the same day — argued for a 50% reduction in pesticide use by 2035, and a complete phase-out by 2050. On the side of La France insoumise, the timeline is more vague.

Vague commitments from some

Mathilde Hignet, representing Jean-Luc Mélenchon — absent due to a major meeting taking place in Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme) at the same time — only stated she wanted to phase out "as soon as possible" pesticides. "The faster we activate the levers we have at our disposal, the faster we will phase them out," she affirmed.

Sector-specific approach

Even a slight vagueness from François Ruffin (Debout !). "The sooner the better, it must be reflected sector by sector, we do not phase out pesticides in the same way when we are cereal or viticulturists," replied Franck Rinchet-Girollet, his representative. Yannick Jadot, representing Raphaël Glucksmann (Place publique) despite his membership in the Ecologist party, did not specify the timeline his candidate envisages for phasing out pesticides.

Event attendance and future hopes

Throughout the debate, Yannick Jadot also more often mentioned his memories with the Ecologists and their current affairs — the ecologist group will thus propose on October 22, during its parliamentary niche in the Senate, a text on cadmium contamination and another on the creation of a basket of healthy products at cost price — rather than that of Raphaël Glucksmann, who has since won the social democratic primary on October 11.

Public interest and future debates

According to the organizers, 300 people attended the debate on site, and a thousand followed it live on the internet. As the first round of the presidential election will take place in six months, it is hoped that many more pesticide debates will be organized on a larger scale. And especially, that the right and far-right candidates will come, this time, to assume their pro-pesticide vision before a growing number of French people worried about their health.