At least 13,000 people started Saturday morning in Mont-de-Marsan for a demonstration to defend traditional bird hunts, deemed illegal by the Council of State, and a "
threatened rural world
".
Several other processions are planned elsewhere in France.
Read also The hunters in the street this Saturday, despite the gesture of appeasement of the Elysee
To the sound of bandas, fog horns and firecrackers, a fluorescent orange tide - the color of the hunters' jackets - set off from the Arènes du Plumaçon, the mecca of bullfighting, for a 4-kilometer loop around the center- town passing in particular in front of the Landes prefecture.
The organizers, who were expecting nearly 200 buses coming mainly from Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie, estimated at 20,000 the number of participants in a "
great peaceful gathering
" of those - hunters, fishermen, agricultural unions, cultural associations etc - "
who share the values of rural culture
”. The prefecture reported the presence of 13,000 people before the start of the demonstration. “
I'm sick of seeing my culture fall apart. We have already eradicated my language, the Gascon, now it is the traditional hunts, lark, wood pigeon ...
", deplores Eric, 47,"
a bit of a hunter and a little fisherman
", a neighbor of Grenada ( Landes) and who has had enough of the "
Taliban of Paristan
», In reference to the«
ideologues of the capital
».
I'm sick of seeing my culture fall apart
A protester
Descended from Charente-Maritime, Xavier, president of a hunting association, came to defend “
the world of rurality
” and “
all hunting methods
”, even if he does not practice traditional bird hunts.
In the colorful procession, where few people were masked, a few Landes shepherds on stilts and young people dressed as bullfighters, as well as signs hostile to Barbara Pompili, Minister of Ecological Transition accused of being "
anti-hunting
".
Other gatherings are planned in Caen (Calvados), Orléans (Loiret), Charleville-Mézières (Ardennes), Redon (Ille-et-Vilaine), Forcalquier (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) and Amiens, electoral stronghold of Ms. Pompili.
In August, the Council of State ruled several hunting techniques with nets (pantes, tenderies) or cages (matoles) contrary to the European “
birds
”
directive
of 2009, which prohibits techniques for mass capture of birds without distinction of species caught.
In the week, however, the government put several orders for consultation to re-authorize some of these hunts, to the chagrin of environmentalists.
A measure interpreted as a gesture towards this very courted electorate.