INTERVIEW
Animal protection associations are kicking up after the presence of two ministers during a bullfight in Bayonne, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Jacqueline Gourault, Minister of Territorial Cohesion and Didier Guillaume, Minister of Agriculture are singled out for attending this bull race where six animals were killed.
The information, revealed by the newspaper Sud Ouest , on Friday prompted criticism from several elected officials, including ecologists. On Europe 1, Julien Bayou, spokesman for Europe Ecology Greens, expressed dissatisfaction: "This presence of the two ministers shocked because it is in complete contradiction with the speech of the government on the animal welfare", did he declare.
"Contradictory" acts and words
"The Minister of Agriculture himself is responsible for animal welfare and he should announce ways to improve the animal condition issues, yet it lends itself to a dismal spectacle of traumatizing and ultimately massacre bulls as if it were a show, "denounces Julien Bayou. "This is obviously rigorously contradictory to all the talk and expectations on the issue of animal welfare.This government must keep its word or stop listening to us with great speeches on ecology and animal welfare. After a while, you have to act. "
Read also: DEBATE - Should we ban bullfighting in France?
On BFM TV, Julien Bayou, had already denounced "a clear and clear support (from the two ministers) to a massacre, a dismal spectacle".
Other political figures have opposed this presence, as Yannick Jadot, environmentalist MEP, who considered it "lamentable" and who lamented on Twitter that "the minister in charge of animal welfare is attending a bullfighting".
After Martine "wakes up" from Greta Thunberg, #didierguillaume "wanks off" the animal suffering! Lamentable!
When the Minister of Agriculture, in charge of animal welfare, attends a bullfight | via @ouestfrancehttps: //t.co/S87ZSQH3ab
A deputy from France insubordinate, Bastien Lachaud has still seen the "symbol of scorn of this government for animals, for living and nature." The Brigitte Bardot Foundation, for its part, felt that the presence of the two ministers was "beyond scandalous and disgusting".
"Bullfighting is part of age-old traditions"
Françoise Dumas, a member of the Republic en marche, elected in the Gard, bullfighting territory, however, defended the two ministers: "Bullfighting is part of age-old traditions throughout the south and belongs to our national heritage. but do not support that we want to restrict my freedom to think or act, "she argued on Twitter.
The #corrida is part of age-old traditions throughout the south and belongs to our national heritage.
I respect all opinions but do not support that we want to restrict my freedom to think or act. Solidarity with our ministers @ dguillaume26 @ j_gourault!
Regularly called into question by the defenders of the animal cause, the organization of bullfights, in the only "regions of bullfighting tradition", was judged in conformity with the Constitution in 2012 by the Constitutional Council. In the past, several French politicians have already expressed their attachment to the practice: besides Manuel Valls or Alain Juppé, who are amateurs, the former ecologist MP Noël Mamère had recognized, in one of his works published in 2002 that he loved "hunting and bullfighting".