Mont-de-Marsan (AFP)

From Mont-de-Marsan to Amiens, tens of thousands of people marched Saturday in five cities of France to defend the traditional bird hunts, deemed illegal by the Council of State, a "threatened rural world" and " traditions in danger ".

According to the Ministry of the Interior, these gatherings brought together a total of 42,000 people, including 16,000 in Mont-de-Marsan (Landes), 12,000 in Amiens (Somme) and between 4,000 and 5,000 in Forcalquier (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) ), Caen (Calvados) and Redon (Ille-de-Vilaine).

To the sound of bandas and hunting horns in the pouring rain in Mont-de-Marsan, led by piboles (small horns) in Redon or supported by local elected officials such as the president of Hauts-de-France Xavier Bertrand in Amiens, Neon orange tides - the color of the hunters' jackets and caps - invaded the streets.

Fishermen, farmers and cultural associations were also at the rendezvous.

Hunter from neighboring Lot-et-Garonne, Christian Bonas rebelled: "In our countryside, the cell phone does not pass, we no longer have a grocery store or a pharmacy, we are neglected everywhere and now we want to take away our traditions, our hunt, transmitted by our elders. It's completely abnormal! ".

Wife of a hunter and feeder of palmipeds and lover of bullfighting, Myriam manifests to continue "transmitting these traditions" to the youngest.

"It's a whole art of living," she said.

Eric, a 47-year-old from Landes, is angry with the "Taliban of Paristan", these "ideologues of the capital".

"I'm sick of seeing my culture fall apart," he thundered.

"We have already eradicated my language, the Gascon, now it's the lark hunts, the wood pigeon ...".

In Forcalquier, the demonstrators, some blowing in calls, marched to the permanence of Christophe Castaner, boss of LREM deputies and former mayor of this small town of 5,000 inhabitants, with slogans and placards hostile to the rulers, such as " Pompili au pillori "or" Macron gravedigger of our traditions ".

Demonstrators blowing in calls parade in Forcalquier (south), September 18, 2021 CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU AFP

On TV5 Monde, the Minister of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili assured Saturday that she was "not a minister for or against hunting".

"I am a minister who must protect biodiversity and therefore when it is in danger, I take my responsibilities", she explained.

- "Let us live" -

Ms. Pompili was also the target of the anger of demonstrators in Amiens, her electoral stronghold.

"Leave us alone! Let us live", launched to the crowd the president of the National Federation of Hunters Willy Schraen, calling for the creation of a large Ministry of Rurality, "for s' finally feel at home there ".

Pro-hunting demonstration in Redon on September 18, 2021 Fred TANNEAU AFP

"Me, I am at the side of the rural people. I am tired of seeing them caricature", affirmed the presidential candidate Xavier Bertrand, questioning Emmanuel Macron: "He says that he supports the traditional hunts but his government makes the On the contrary. We must stop the + at the same time, + a hypocritical joke ".

In Redon, Jérôme Delalande, 42, pointed out "these ecologists who have reintroduced the bear and the wolf and are the same who forbid hunting".

"We must regulate the game," said this hunter from neighboring Loire-Atlantique with his daughter.

As elsewhere, farmers were present in the Breton procession.

Like Catherine Lallié, of the Rural Coordination, who railed against "vegetarians and vegans" who "do not have to police the food".

"We feel abandoned by our government and our elected officials ..." she said.

In August, the Council of State ruled several hunting techniques with nets (pantes, tenderies) or cages (matoles) contrary to the European directive "birds" of 2009, which prohibits the techniques of mass capture of birds without distinction of species caught.

Hunters question Minister Barbara Pompili on September 18, 2021 in Mont-de-Marsan GAIZKA IROZ AFP

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.

Justice had already ruled illegal, in June, glue hunting, which consists of trapping blackbirds and thrushes on stems coated with glue, but which also leads to the capture of other species of birds.

© 2021 AFP