But who participates in the secret hunts of the Republic?

• The deputy Matthieu Orphelin demanded in a letter that the names of the parliamentarians invited to the so-called "hunts of the Republic" which take place in winter at the Château de Chambord be revealed.

• Several people have investigated these hunts, which have very few participants, whose names are carefully kept secret by the castle, but among whom there are elected officials from all sides, business owners, diplomats or sportsmen, all gathered for a day to kill game.

• If the director of the castle claims to make the list independently, some think that the choice of participants would be blown by the Elysée, which would use this hunt as a diplomatic tool.

This is the story of an LR senator, an LREM deputy and a CAC40 boss who hunted together in Chambord.

This is not the beginning of a little joke written on the back of a candy wrapper, but the fairly classic scenario of a cold winter Friday at the castle.

You may not have known it, but almost every week between November and February, a hunt is organized on the approximately 4,400 hectares belonging to the estate.

This is the "Republic hunt".

You could not necessarily have known it, because these beats like the ground where they are practiced are not accessible to the public, or at least not to any public.

The participants, 36 in number per beat, are carefully selected.

Parliamentarians, business owners, senators, ambassadors or even high-level athletes,

The mystery does not please everyone since according to information from the Parisian, the deputy Matthieu Orphelin would have asked by mail to the ethics officer of the National Assembly to investigate and publish the names of the parliamentarians participating in these hunts.

The argument put forward: the deputies must declare “the gifts, advantages and invitations to a sporting or cultural event of a value which they estimate to be greater than 150 euros”, but the elected environmentalist notes that the hunts never appear there. .

A missive that puts the spotlight on these famous hunts that both participants and organizers would like to keep a little more in the shadows, at a time when the subject of hunting is regularly controversial.

A practice that dates back to De Gaulle

The hunts of the Republic are however not secret.

Created in 1965 by General de Gaulle, they were then called “presidential hunts”.

The participants were chosen by the President and this, until 1995: date of the beginning of the mandate of Jacques Chirac who wishes to put an end to it.

It was finally in 2010, under Nicolas Sarkozy that their cessation was confirmed.

These beats then become the "hunts of the Republic".

The difference is that the participants, who pay a sum of 120 euros to participate, are no longer chosen by the Elysée, but by the director of Chambord: Jean d'Haussonville.

"The Elysée no longer invites people, we do not receive instructions from it, there is no more organic link between the Elysée and Chambord for the hunts", insists the director general of the national domain. from Chambord.

And if he insists on this point, it is because the famous list of participants that he writes with his own hand is regularly the subject of criticism and inquiries.

For journalist Marcelo Wesfreid, who published a book on the subject in 2020,

, the boss of Chambord "chooses political relays and patrons to defend the interests of Chambord, but also names that the we can blow him away”.

A diplomatic lever?

Already in 2018, the writer Gaspard Dhellemmes assured in a long investigation published in the

that Emmanuel Macron was seeking to make these hunts a diplomatic instrument by inviting foreign ambassadors, diplomats and other handpicked personalities... "With these hunts, we resolve tensions, bring people closer, we make them known, we raise senior officials who want to enter politics, we thank prefects, ”decrypts journalist Marcelo Wesfreid.

A version which obviously does not quite stick with that of Jean d'Haussonville who ensures that on the same line of beat "the smicard can neighbor with a person who earns a million a year".

He explained to us how he made this famous selection.

“The dozen annual drives are organized by categories of guests, defined in advance by a board of directors.

He affirms that there are thus hunts offered to the presidents of the departmental federations of hunters, one to the mayors of France, to the inhabitants of Chambord, or even since 2011 to patrons who have made a donation of more than 10,000 euros to the domain.

Donations that also allow the castle to no longer depend on state subsidies.

"It's an almost exclusively male inter-self"

In the list of guests that the boss of the Château de Chambord describes to us, he does not forget the famous parliamentarians that Matthieu Orphelin would like to (make) known.

“They can be invited to all the hunts, whatever their political side.

There is no distinction between majority and opposition”, says Jean d'Haussonville, insisting on the fact that the main criterion is that everyone respects the safety instructions and is courteous.

This is how “personalities who oppose each other politically spend Friday afternoons together in a moment of friendship.

It is an almost exclusively male inter-self.

Everyone is bound by this secret passion which is no longer really fashionable”, counterbalances Marcelo Wesfreid who himself participated in one of these hunts.

In his book, he thus reveals that in December 2019, François Baroin spent his day hunting with Marc Fesneau, Minister in charge of Relations with Parliament, but also with Senator LR Pierre Charon, Thierry Coste, the famous lobbyist of the hunting, with Jérôme Peyrat who at the time was political adviser to Emmanuel Macron, but also a former UDI minister... Jean d'Haussonville prefers to compare these hunting parties mixing all political sides to the "refreshment bar of the National Assembly" where everyone can talk to each other.

“Chambord is a state domain.

Parliamentarians who go to an invitation are in a situation of the same nature as those who accept an invitation to lunch or dinner in a ministry or a prefecture or in a state museum”, he justifies.

An embarrassing secret?

Nevertheless, imagining two deputies yelling at each other in the hemicycle on Monday and giving each other advice on the best way to raise a boar in the forest on Saturday remains a strange vision.

And from a political point of view, we understand that some parliamentarians do not want this to get out.

That's good, Jean d'Haussonville has a perfect argument for not revealing anything.

“This is information relating to private life, in particular the possession of a hunting license.

This is what the administrative court recently ruled, ”he advocates.

He also adds that while some guests are “assumed hunters”, others are “more discreet” about this practice, which is not always very popular.

"Some would no longer come because the mere possession of a hunting license can subject you to the vindictiveness of certain networks", he says.

A few names have already leaked.

Marcelo Wesfreid will have let us know a few names discovered during his investigation: the judoka David Douillet, the general manager of the Suez group, François Patriat (LREM), Christian Jacob (president of the Republicans), Eric Ciotti (LR deputy) or even the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher and Claude Bartolone (PS).

For the rest, only the boss of Chambord knows the lists and there, it is the preserve.

Society

Firearms: What will change for the five million French people who own a weapon

Society

Nature: 20 million animals bred for hunting according to Yannick Jadot, an estimate disputed by professionals in the sector

• Controversy

• Chateau

• Hunt

• Elysium

• Hunters

• Emmanuel Macron

• Society

• 0 comment

• 0 share

  • Share on Messenger

  • Share on Facebook

  • Share on Twitter

  • Share on Flipboard

  • Share on Pinterest

  • Share on Linkedin

  • Send by Mail

• To safeguard

• A fault ?

• To print