The Green candidate in France's presidential election, Eva Joly, was admitted to hospital overnight after a fall on Sunday, but would resume campaigning on Tuesday, her party said.
"Apparently it's slight. The plan is that tomorrow she will get back to work," Green senator Jean-Vincent Place told RTL radio on Monday morning after the Norwegian-born Joly fell and hit her head as she left a Paris cinema.
Opinion polls say that Joly, 68, who worked previously as an investigative magistrate, is on course to win around two percent of votes in the April 22nd first round of the French presidential election.
France has vowed to prevent a trade deal between the European Union and the South American Mercosur bloc from being signed with its current terms, as the country is rocked by farmer protests.
The trade deal, which would include agricultural powers Argentina and Brazil, is among a litany of complaints by farmers in France and elsewhere in Europe who have been blocking roads to demand better conditions for their sector.
They fear it would further depress their produce prices amid increased competition from exporting nations that are not bound by strict and costly EU environmental laws.
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“This Mercosur deal, as it stands, is not good for our farmers. It cannot be signed as is, it won’t be signed as is,” Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire told broadcasters CNews and Europe 1.
The European Commission acknowledged on Tuesday that the conditions to conclude the deal with Mercosur, which also includes Paraguay and Uruguay, “are not quite there yet”.
The talks, however, are continuing, the commission said.
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President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that France opposes the deal because it “doesn’t make Mercosur farmers and companies abide by the same rules as ours”.
The EU and the South American nations have been negotiating since 2000.
The contours of a deal were agreed in 2019, but a final version still needs to be ratified.
The accord aims to cut import tariffs on – mostly European – industrial and pharmaceutical goods, and on agricultural products.
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