From unknown to media figure in a few days.
A breeder in Haute-Garonne where he and others launched the farmers' first roadblock, Jérôme Bayle became a figure in their movement of anger, he who was marked by the suicide of his father whose farm he took over .
At 42 years old, with a thick beard and a head most often covered with a cap, the operator based in Montesquieu-Volvestre (Haute-Garonne) has become a media figure, performing on TV sets from the Carbonne dam, around forty people away. kilometers southwest of the pink city.
The man assumes this new responsibility, while confiding: “the goal of the game is not that I get glory from it, the goal of the game is that we manage to make a living from our profession.”
At the head of a farm of 90 cows where he also practices mixed farming, Jérôme Bayle did not intend for the profession, since he had followed training in masonry and engineering structures.
But his path changed with the difficulties and then the suicide of his father around ten years ago.
“He was no longer going, he was no longer doing the job properly, he was letting himself go even though he was a very good breeder,” he remembers about his father.
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His commitment to defending agriculture also dates from this tragedy: “I still found my father with a bullet in the head (because) of this profession,” he says.
After his death, “he promised himself that he would make the farm a beautiful farm,” confides Joël Tournier, his friend and comrade in the mobilization in Carbonne.
The two men met in rugby around the age of 27-28, at the Saint-Girons Sporting club, and “when you play together on the green square, afterward it’s not the same,” confides this grain breeder, like his friend.
“Jérôme is a leader, everyone is behind him.
He is someone who does not cheat, who is whole, honest and passionate about his job, he does everything thoroughly,” he explains.
In La Dépêche du Midi, his mother who, at 75 years old, helps him on the farm while he is on the dam, describes him as “a go-getter who speaks directly and always takes responsibility for his actions”.
“He fights for the survival of the peasants.
He only thinks about that.
He will go all the way,” the old lady confided to the regional daily.
“If we fought, it was to stop all this”
Friday, after Gabriel Attal's first announcements in Montastruc-de-Salies (Haute-Garonne), he was on site a few meters from the Prime Minister.
The yellow and purple cap had replaced the hat and the farmer was entitled to the private interview he wanted with the head of government.
At the same time, he confided that he had invited Mr. Attal to come to the A64 dam in the evening.
Also read: Angry farmers: how the rank and file forced the unions’ hand
In a huge crowd mixing farmers, journalists and onlookers, the two men walked around the scene of the blockage, until taking turns taking the microphone in front of the crowd, each perched on a chair.
“I only became the spokesperson, I only appeared on TV, because one was necessary, but frankly if I didn't give in, it's because in your looks, your determination, I knew that you would not let me go,” declared the breeder who above all wanted to remember “the human adventure” from this moment.
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“If we fought, it was to stop all this,” he said after Mr. Attal, showing the models dressed in work clothes symbolizing the suicides of the agricultural world, hanging from a bridge above above the highway.
“This evening, I am announcing to you that we are not leaving either,” he then continued, addressing the prefect of Occitanie, “but that tomorrow at noon the highway will be able to travel,” he said. added, to applause.