The hunters respond to Yannick Jadot, who wants to ban hunting on weekends – BFMTV

On Friday, on our antenna, the ecological presidential candidate Yannick Jadot proposed to ban the practice of hunting on weekends and during school holidays. This Saturday, the hunters protested, citing in particular their efforts in terms of security.

Their reaction was immediate. While the summary judge of the Council of State suspended the authorizations around traditional bird hunts Monday at the beginning of the week, the environmentalist presidential candidate Yannick Jadot proposed to go even further, this Friday: the environmentalist demanded, on our antenna, the prohibition of the practice hunting on weekends and during school holidays.

His proposal follows the accident which saw a young man of 29 receive a stray bullet in the chest in Vallières-sur-Fier in Haute-Savoie on Thursday – if the injury is serious, his prognosis is however not committed . An incident that falls in the middle of a balance sheet: last year, according to figures from theFrench Biodiversity Office, there were 141 hunting victims, and eleven dead. But hunters are certain: cohabitation is possible with rural people and walkers, and the idea of ​​banning their activity on weekends irritates them.

The Federation of Hunters denounces an ecological “diktat”

“It is inconceivable that such an accident could happen today. I strongly condemn it.” The word does not come either from a local elected official or an anti-hunting activist but from André Mugnier, president of the Federation of Hunters of Haute-Savoie, commenting on the drama that occurred Thursday. He argued “for the efforts we are making, in Haute-Savoie in particular, because we were the first to set up safety training”.

However, there is no question for hunters to draw a more definitive lesson from it, and even less to rally to the idea of ​​their traditional adversaries: the environmentalists. Willy Schraen, president of the National Federation of Hunters, attacked the MEP on our antenna:

“There is a notion that emerged from the French revolution, it is that of private property. (…) The forest of which Mr. Jadot speaks, where he likes to walk, is 85% private in France. 15% of public forest, there are already agreements – often we don’t hunt on weekends, that’s normal, it’s the state. But where it’s private, since when should we submit to a diktat of the ecologists? “

A very problematic cohabitation

The ecologist would he stick his nose in the businesses (and the territory) of others? For Pierre Rigaux, naturalist, anti-hunting activist, and author of No gun in nature, this way of posing the debate is not valid. He said it this Saturday to BFMTV:

“I reverse the problem because as it was presented by the president of the National Federation of Hunters, it is completely fallacious. All the rural people know very well that when one walks in the countryside, there is no need to go to a private plot to realize that you can be endangered by hunting “, he introduced, continuing:” Because obviously the bullets go very far and go beyond the private plot. “

When we talk to him about “cohabitation”, the naturalist and activist retorts: “To live together better, hunters must release a little ballast, and that they accept that on certain days, two or three a week, we can no longer hunt, that it be admitted at the national level “. And for him, it is a question of security as much as of readability: “That we do not need to inquire in a complicated way in the prefecture.”

A campaign “radicalization”?

Thierry Coste is a key figure in the hunting world. The lobbyist is the political adviser of the National Federation of Hunters. According to him, it does not make a fold. “It is quite possible to hunt and to walk at the same time! We must stop! We have made a tremendous effort and we continue. And if the person who fired did not respect the rules, we are will bring civil action. It is obvious, “he stormed to France Inter, in a subject broadcast this Saturday morning. He further toughened his tone with regard to Yannick Jadot, pointing to an “electoralist” approach, not hesitating to consider that the contender for the Elysee is “radicalized for the campaign”.

Still at the microphone of public radio, Brigitte Soulary, president of the French Hiking Federation, tried to reconcile or at least to reconcile these antagonistic positions with a median proposal:

“It would be necessary to sanctify certain very frequented routes and that there, we effectively prohibit hunting, and that hikers are invited not to go into the forest on the day when there is a beat!”

The Alsatians of the valley of Munster will also be confronted with a practical case this Saturday. 250 hunters will be scattered there for a wild boar hunt. “We kindly asked all hikers to avoid this whole area where we hunt so as not to expose them to unnecessary risks”, argued Raymond Blaise, president of the hunting interest group, in front of our camera on occasion. of this event. A vast area of ​​13,000 hectares.