Marine Le Pen published on her authoritative profile a comment in which she powerfully attacked the European Commission for approving the trade agreement between the European Union and the Mercosur countries.
Her words left no illusions: this agreement, if implemented, will have, as she put it, disastrous consequences for French agriculture. Le Pen requested president Emmanuel Macron to make a clear message that France would not implement this agreement, which she defined as "against the interests of the nation." In addition, she announced that Euro MP Rassemblement National would request a vote of distrust in the European Parliament against Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission. As she noted in an entry published on August 2 on Facebook, it will be the minute erstwhile “Every Frenchman will be able to see who truly defends farmers and who just says he does it.”
"The European Commission has just approved an agreement with Mercosur, which, if implemented, will have disastrous consequences for French agriculture", wrote Le Pen. – “The president of the Republic must commit to the French that he will refuse to implement this agreement, which is contrary to the interests of our nation.”
Le Pen's words are not just a single comment, but part of a broad and consistent political strategy of the National Unity. For months now, nationalists have been calling for the agreement to be blocked, arguing that it will open the European marketplace to a massive influx of low-cost agricultural products from South America, produced (as they claim) under conditions drastically different from those required in the European Union.
Rassemblement National warns that this agreement will lead to unfair competition. European farmers, burdened by stringent environmental, sanitary and social regulations, will gotta compete with products manufactured under conditions that do not meet any of these standards. Thus, according to nationalists, not only local production but besides food security, the environment and cultural identity of European agriculture will be hit.
"We will let social, sanitary and environmental products to flow into our country much worse than ours", warned the petition "Refusons l'application du MERCOSUR", published on 23 July on the RN website.
"This agreement is simply a betrayal of our farmers, our environment and our sovereignty," says the petition "Non au Mercosur : défendons nos agricultureurs et notre souveraineté alimentaire", published on 31 July.
Special petitions calling for the rejection of the EU-Mercosur agreement were launched on the Rassemblement National website. They call on citizens not to let "Executing French agriculture" and "they stopped this irresponsible pact before it was besides late". These petitions are of large interest, especially in agrarian areas and in agricultural regions, where traditionally National Unity has strong support.
RN politicians have besides consistently made the procedural aspect public. In their view, the full negotiation process was opaque and decisions were taken beyond democratic control. The European Commission is accused of ignoring national opinions of parliaments and civilian societies. They besides callback that both the National Assembly and the legislature in France had previously opposed this agreement.
Marine Le Pen and her allies believe that the signing of the agreement despite the opposition expressed by the French institutions is proof of the full deficiency of democratic legitimacy of the European Commission and its separation from the real problems of citizens. The communicative of the Brussels elite ignoring the voice of the people returns to Le Pen with full power and is utilized in the national media campaign. For the National Unity, this dispute is more than a trade issue – it is simply a substance of principles in which the defence of French sovereignty and national interest is central. An agreement with Mercosur is treated as an example of an "economic suicide" to which elites are agreed to separate from the realities of French families working in the agricultural sector.
The party's vice president, Louis Aliot, has made a number of public appearances in this case, identifying the agreement as “catastrophic” for provinces and the food industry. The RN run included local meetings, press conferences and mass distribution of information material. Euro MPs, local authorities and local structures were involved. However, criticism is not limited to economical issues. Rassemblement National besides warns against the environmental consequences of the agreement. Nationalists say that the agreement supports an economical model based on environmental exploitation, especially in countries specified as Brazil, where vast areas of rainforests are cut for export crops. In their view, the EU, by signing this agreement, indirectly contributes to global environmental degradation while at the same time forcing its own farmers to comply with increasingly restrictive climate standards.
For this reason, nationalists say directly: Brussels has a policy of hypocrisy. On the 1 hand, it imposes further emanation simplification regulations on associate States and on the another hand allows imports of products whose carbon footprint and production methods contradict these objectives.
"The European Union demands our farmers to comply with always stricter environmental rules, but at the same time signs an agreement that allows them to import products that destruct nature on the another side of the world", says the petition "Non au Mercosur", published on 31 July 2025.
It is this double measure, as the RN's representatives say, that the European Commission is acting not in the interests of citizens, but in the interests of large business. The nationalists accuse Brussels that, in the name of globalisation and free trade, it is ready to sacrifice European agricultural producers, the tradition of local production and consumer safety.
The announcement by Euro MPs Rassemblement National of a vote of distrust against Ursula von der Leyen is not just a motion of protest – it is simply a deliberate and strategical action. Le Pen knows that the chances of overthrowing the head of the Commission are slim, but voting on the substance may service as a political test of loyalty to the interests of French farmers. As the RN claims, it will be a minute of fact for all Euro MPs and an chance to show whether they truly stand side by side with their citizens, or whether they are inactive serving the ‘Brussels oligarchy’.
For Rassemblement National, the Mercosur case is an perfect field for a wider political offensive. It besides strikes globalisation, the dominance of the European Commission and the structures that nationalists present as irresponsible, opaque and detrimental to national interest. Against this background, Le Pen is positioned as a candidate able to reconstruct real control of citizens over economic, commercial and environmental decisions that are present falling above the heads of Europeans.
In fresh weeks, the RN has been expanding its information campaign, besides targeting tiny entrepreneurs and consumers. In materials distributed on markets and under prefectures, we read that the effects of Mercosur will not be limited to farmers. Nationalists argue that consumers will be flooded with lower quality goods that can be produced utilizing banned pesticides, growth hormones or GMOs in Europe. They besides stress that tiny agri-food processing companies may not withstand price pressure, leading to bankruptcy and marketplace concentration.
"It's not just farmers – it's all of us. Anyone who eats meat, fruit, vegetables, anyone who wants to know what he has on his plate should say: halt Mercosur" – it is written in 1 of the RN flyers, sold in the Oxytan region.
In parallel, RN mobilizes local mayors, councillors and trade unions to express authoritative opposition to the agreement. In any departments, symbolic resolutions condemn the European Commission's actions are adopted. For Le Pen, it proves that opposition to Mercosur is bottom-up and exceeds organization divisions.
In the European Parliament, nationalists are trying to build a coalition of opposition, addressing conservative and centre-right groups from another countries – especially Poland, Hungary, Germany and Austria. They argue that this issue is not left-wing or right-wing, but sovereign. In their view, Mercosur can become a subject that will redefine relations between the Commission and the associate States and show whether the Union is inactive a community of sovereign nations.
Meanwhile, RN does not forget social media. Spots, video, live broadcasts from farms, reports from protests – all this creates a image of a organization close to average people. Hashtags #StopMercosur, #SouverainetéAlimentaire or #AvecNosAgriculteurs They are emerging increasingly in public space.
Although the European Commission ensures that the agreement contains mechanisms for protecting agriculture and wellness standards, The RN cannot be persuaded. The statements of the technocrats in Brussels are, in their view, an effort to blur their eyes. organization representatives ask why, if the agreement truly does not harm, it was adopted without formal debate in the French Parliament and with specified strong social resistance.
"We do not want a declaration or annexes to the agreement. We want to reject it," said Thierry Mariani MEP in an interview with "Le Figaro".
The National Unity does not intend to halt at criticism. Marine Le Pen has already announced that if the organization takes power after the upcoming elections, France will immediately retreat from this agreement. For nationalists, it's a substance of principle. What matters is the defence of agriculture, sovereignty and fair competition. In their opinion, Mercosur is not only not serving France, but besides the full of Europe, whose future should be based on local production, common sense and democratic control of what goes on our tables.
The RN continues to inform that if the Mercosur Agreement is yet approved and implemented, it will be a breakthrough not only for French agriculture but for the full European integration model. In their eyes, it is simply a choice between a Europe of technocrats and a Europe of nations. Le Pen and her organization have already chosen a side.
