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France petition against bee-killing pesticide tops two million backers
A student-led petition against a chemical deadly to bees reached more than two million signatures in France on Monday, increasing pressure on the president not to sign a bill allowing its use into law.
The legislation was adopted on July 8, but without a proper debate to bypass gridlock in a bitterly divided parliament.
On July 10, a 23-year-old master's student launched a petition urging the French government to drop the law allowing the reintroduction of acetamiprid, a pesticide that is harmful to ecosystems but popular with many farmers in Europe.
Banned in France since 2018, the chemical remains legal in the European Union.
The insecticide is particularly sought after by beet and hazelnut growers, who say they have no alternative against pests and face unfair competition.
The petition on France's lower-house National Assembly's website had garnered more than 2,009,000 signatures on Monday morning.
Backers at the height of summer include 400 people from the culinary world, including Michelin-starred chefs, who have criticised the "blindness of our politicians".
According to a poll published in La Tribune Dimanche on Sunday, 64 percent of people surveyed hope Macron will not sign the bill into law but will instead submit it to a new debate in parliament.
Macron has said he is waiting to hear the verdict of the Constitutional Council, which is expected to rule on the constitutionality of the law on August 7.
The contested legislation is dubbed the Duplomb law, after its author, Laurent Duplomb, a senator for the right-wing Republicans party.
The petition reached 500,000 signatures last weekend, a threshold after which the lower house may choose to hold a public debate, but that would be limited to the content of the petition -- not the law itself.
(N.Miller--TAG)
