Nicolas Hulot, who last August resigned in protest at the French President’s lack of urgency to implement environment reforms, joins a growing rebellion against the trade pact. Members of the French parliament are expected to vote on the ratification of Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement later this afternoon. The deal provisionally took effect from September 2017 but still needs to be rubber-stamped by all 28 EU member states.
France will become the 14th country to ratify the agreement if the vote passes later today – which is expected given Mr Macron’s comfortable parliamentary majority.
But in an open letter to MPs, Mr Hulot has urged politicians to vote down the deal to stop big industries handed an easy route to market.
He said that when France bans certain pesticides to protect people’s health, it goes against the interests of chemical giants.
He wrote: “When all these lobbies are already trying to break down the door, why give them a battering ram with CETA?
“Have the courage to say ‘no’ tomorrow.”
“We have failed to provide the necessary guarantees for a climate veto, animal bonemeal, new GMOs, the safeguarding of Europe’s precautionary principle… We have failed to reform European trade policy,” Mr Hulot added.
Despite his resignation last year, the former television presenter remains a popular political figure.
Greens, far-left and far-right politicians in the French parliament are all set to vote against the deal.
The centre-right Les Republicans have also warned the trade deal will wreak havoc to France’s beef sector.
Their 25 MPs penned a joint letter, entitled “Let’s not make food a marker of social class”, in opposition to CETA’s ratification this afternoon.
They write: “Not approving CETA would be like being a vile reactionary protectionist, who is cut from the world.
“However, such a reasoning is both simplistic and caricatural.
“The problem is not exclusively that of CETA but in the accusation of these free trade agreements.”
The French government has urged MPs to back the deal, insisting it will be beneficial for the country.
Agriculture minister Didier Guillaume said: “With CETA, we are sure that we will not import the kind of agriculture that we do not want.”
The trade deal can be theoretically can be blocked altogether if an EU member state notifies Brussels that it has permanently rejected the agreement.