French Minister of Ecological Transition Monique Barbut announced she submitted her resignation to President Emmanuel Macron in protest against the reintroduction of pesticides that scientists say harm human health and bees.

However, Macron did not accept the resignation, and Barbut will remain in her post due to the "urgency to address the consequences of climate change," her team told AFP. Government spokesperson Maud Bregeon later confirmed Barbut would stay in office.

In a LinkedIn post, Barbut wrote that "contrary to the commitments that had been made to me, the government prevented any debate on the removal of this measure," adding there had been "one environmental setback too many" since her appointment last October.

The former head of WWF France and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification stated: "Politics is not my world, and if this is what politics is about, it definitely never will be."

Barbut's statement came just after lawmakers approved a bill allowing the pesticides acetamiprid and flupyradifurone back into use. They have been banned in France since 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Scientists say the chemicals are dangerous to human health and harmful to bee populations essential for agriculture. Proponents of the bill argued that France's beet, apple, and hazelnut farmers need the pesticides to compete with their EU counterparts.

Source: www.dw.com