Willy Schraen wants to make hunters “community policemen” – The HuffPost

HUNTERS – A big gap to the tunes of “and at the same time”. This Sunday November 14, Sunday Newspaperpost a long interview a highly publicized personality in the run-up to the presidential election: the boss of the National Federation of Hunters Willy schraen. A man who deplores the fact that hunters and more generally rural life are too often forgotten, but who also considers that hunting accidents are too much talk in the media.

In this regard, the municipal councilor of Bayenghem-lès-Éperlecques, near Saint-Omer, intends to suggest that in the event that a hunter would kill or seriously injure someone, it “is no longer possible for him to recover his hunting license ”. A gesture aimed at putting an end to the controversy which is raging while the “accidents” have multiplied in recent weeks, with in particular the death of a motorist in Ille-et-Vilaine.

But beyond this question of the dangerousness of hunting, the interview with Willy Schraen in JDD also allows him to discuss a proposal that he intends to make to the mayors of France, meeting from November 16 to 18 to their annual congress. His idea is to add a regal “link” “at the level of the territories” by making hunters “local police officers” able to “draw up reports and observe flagrant offenses”. This to fight against “a rural and environmental delinquency” in full increase, according to him.

A proposal that starts from this observation: “In rural municipalities, we are witnessing the disappearance of the local police concerning the surveillance of agricultural and forest areas.” Alongside the gendarmerie, and while the field warden profession is endangered, Willy Schraen would like to provide agents to fight against “illegal garbage dumps, the straying of domestic animals, problems related to presence. motorized vehicles in the forest at sensitive locations ”.

All the more so, he says, since hunters have “trained and sworn professionals” who are already involved at the request of certain municipalities to “regulate harmful species”. “They could, tomorrow, under the control of the State and the mayors, have broader missions”, continues the president of the FNC, who wishes “to give a legal framework” to the intervention of his troops.

“Provocation or April Fools?”

A suggestion that quickly aroused indignation among environmental figures. Spokespersons by Yannick Jadot, Marine Tondelier and Matthieu Orphelin particularly deplored the inappropriate taking of initiative given the current context. “At this point, it’s provocation. Or an April fool? ”Wonders in particular the elected municipal officer of Hénin-Beaumont and regional councilor of Hauts-de-France. “Perhaps we should start by stopping killing people,” asks journalist Hugo Clément, particularly involved in the defense of animals.

Reactions anticipated by Willy Schraen in the columns of the JDD where he assures that in any case, “public opinion is perfectly directed by antichasse people and, in the current context, hunting embodies the camp of evil”.

The fact remains that his proposal to make hunters “local police” made many observers laugh yellow, in particular among journalists, who have multiplied the links between the accidents linked to hunting recently deplored and his idea of ​​making them custodians of public order.

Feedback on regulation

Because the media context, if it gives it a large place, is not necessarily favorable to Willy Schraen. On November 10, he actually found himself at the heart of a controversy after having said in an RMC program have “nothing to give a fuck to regulate” the species by hunting, finding there much more a hobby and a passion than a civic duty.

A very commented exit that he partly contradicted in his interview of the day. “If tomorrow hunting was prohibited, the animals would multiply, the risk of collision on the road would increase, and that would cause the death of hundreds of people”, he assures to justify the legitimacy of his hobby and of the hunters. And to ensure at the same time that they are “neither officials of death nor killing machines”, and that if they serve “the general interest by regulating”, for them, hunting is also “a moment of sharing and happiness between friends”.

Thus, Willy Schraen ensures that he “voluntarily threw this pavement into the pond” with his statement in “The big mouths”. Because for him, hunters have been making “a fundamental error” for years by presenting themselves first as regulators. “We are passionate hunters and vigilant regulators at the same time. We must therefore highlight our passion and assume it, even if that creates a controversy. ”

Especially at a time when, he says, hunting is only shown as “something accidental” out of the political conviction of its detractors. “Hunting is dangerous, we never said the opposite. But every accident has turned out to be a big blow. ”

Saying today unable to “sit at the same table” as those who multiply the insults and “death threats” against him, and welcoming the dialogue with Emmanuel Macron since his arrival at the Elysee, Willy Schrae, however, assures that he has no desire to launch himself into politics at the head of his own movement.

This does not prevent him from preventing: “If the attacks continue to be so violent, it is the entire rural electorate who will feel their wings grow and will mobilize against the extremists of radical ecology.” And to conclude: “One day, it will be necessary to create a political movement to defend the interests of the 25% of French people who live in rural communities.” This augurs well for a new political shift in pro and anti-hunting, and to ensure a little more of the place of his leisure in the media landscape.

See also on the HuffPost: Hunters demonstrate at Jean Castex against government policy