Wearing boots, the candidate of the National Gathering walks the trails of Cap d'Erquy off which is planned the construction of 62 wind turbines 200 meters high, 16 kilometers from the coast.

With a total capacity of 496 MW, this park is supposed to produce the equivalent of the annual electricity consumption of 835,000 inhabitants, according to its promoter Ailes Marines.

Julien Tréhorel, scallop fisherman, the flagship product of this Breton port, shows the horizon to Marine Le Pen.

"It is exploited by sustainable and artisanal fishing, and we are being chased out of this area to set up wind turbines", he laments, referring to "a privatization of the horizon"

"There is a clear desire to lie to fishermen", replies the far-right candidate who promises to "stop" the project if she is elected, denouncing a wind project "ruinous for the environment, for finances ", which "destroys the landscapes" and "will bring down (...) artisanal fishing".

"It's almost a crime," she says.

Marine Le Pen in Erquy, with farmers and fishermen, January 14, 2022 DAMIEN MEYER AFP

Instead of wind power, it defends nuclear power.

The electricity produced by the park must be resold to the State for 155 euros per MWh instead of 45 to 47 euros for that of nuclear power plants, she says.

"Fraud"

On the port, Marie-Laure Blin, wife of a fisherman, came to meet the candidate.

"It's a total aberration, it's just a story of money," she exclaims, referring to the "noise" of the works, the cables crossing the beach.

If the project succeeds, "one day there will be one who will be found hanging from his mast", estimates the young woman, moved.

"We saw last year that we had no spiders in front of (the beach of) Caroual", adds Quentin Emeriau, fishing boss with his little girl in his arms.

And the shell, "it has no fins, it won't be able to get out", quips Yann, another fishing boss, next to it.

"It's the biggest scam of the century," says Marine Le Pen.

"We forgot to tell (the French) that wind turbines were imported, that it had an influence on biodiversity, that house prices were collapsing and that it was going to have consequences for tourism and that there were risk for the health".

After "stopping" projects and "dismantling" existing wind turbines at the end of their operation, the candidate also wants to "seek responsibility" because "leaders will be accountable".

As she got back into her car, Marine Le Pen was stopped by farmers who had assembled about fifteen tractors and were blocking the road between the port and the beach in the center of Erquy.

"Sovereignty"

"Egalim 2, who will play the game" can be read on a banner in reference to the law adopted in October aimed at protecting the remuneration of farmers by further regulating commercial relations between manufacturers and distributors.

Marine Le Pen in Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine) on January 14, 2022 DAMIEN MEYER AFP

"It's the supermarkets that lead the Egalim law. (...) Whether it's you or the others, you don't take the sense of the gravity" of the situation, launches candidate Jérémy Labbé, pig breeder in Plurien and president of the Young Farmers of the department.

"Nobody talks about agriculture in the countryside. (...) We can't just talk about Covid," he adds.

Marine Le Pen assures him that she is "aware of the role of mass distribution" and that the "balance of power (is) completely unbalanced" in favor of it.

"Behind agriculture, it is not only the survival of a sector that is at stake but the sovereignty of the nation", adds the candidate, praising the "role of arbiter" of the State in setting the prices, "so as not to let the free forces of the market determine whether tomorrow we are going to feed ourselves".

In the end "the problem is not the law but the political will", she says.

© 2022 AFP