Macron in heated row with farmer during agricultural show

Emmanuel Macron came out in fighting form during a tense visit to the Paris agricultural show, squaring off with a farmer in a heated exchange after the French President was booed and whistled at as he toured the giant exhibition.

The event was reminiscent of his meeting with angry workers at a Whirlpool factory last spring during his election campaign when he was heckled by a mob but managed to calm them down by standing his ground and talking to them.

The 40-year-old president turned up at the Paris farm show, an obligatory annual trip for French heads of state,  knowing it would likely be a fraught visit due to farmers’ woes about declining incomes, the future ban on glyphosate, and the EU trade deal with South America.

After breakfasting with the leading players in the world of French agriculture, he began touring the stands in the giant exhibition halls on the southern edge of Paris that are packed with hundreds of farm animals and produce.

He got some cheers but it was mostly booes and hisses that followed Mr Macron, who was at all times surrounded by several bodyguards.

At one point he appears to have lost his temper when he stopped to confront two farmers who were complaining about the ban on the weedkiller glyphosate, which the president has said he will bring in within the next three years.

Mr Macron, clearly struggling to contain his anger, retorted that all studies showed that the weedkiller is a danger to health, which prompted one of the men to tell him to calm down.

“You were the one whistling at me behind my back. It’s not for you to tell anyone to be calm,” the president shot back, jabbing his finger in the direction of the farmer, who struggled to get a word in.

“I’m yelling at you… but we can talk,” the president said, as the situation calmed down. He said that exceptions would be made for any French farmers who were unable to find a suitable alternative for glyphosate.

In a more lighthearted moment a little later during the presidential tour, Mr Macron was presented with a chicken by the head of a farmers' federation.

His aides said he had named it Agathe and that it would be taken to live in the Elysée with another bird, where they will live in a specially built chicken coup.

Mr Macron has promised €5 billion (£4.4 billion) in agricultural investment as well as minimum farm prices to prevent producers selling at a loss.

But farmers and their FNSEA lobby group remain concerned about issues ranging from trade talks with the South American Mercosur bloc, which they fear will bring a flood of cheaper beef to Europe, to a land-buying spree by Chinese investors.

The annual farm show, in French called the Salon de l'Agriculture, is a mandatory rite of passage for political leaders, who tend either to relish the event - as former president Jacques Chirac visibly did - or endure it.

Nicolas Sarkozy, during his presidential farm show debut a decade ago, let rip with an expletive-laden insult against a man in the crowd who refused to shake his hand. His words were caught on video and haunted him for the rest of his mandate.