Europe 1 with AFP 11:43 a.m., March 22, 2022

Despite the absence of Yannick Jadot and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, accused of "damaging" hunting and excluded from the guest list, the presidential candidates are on Tuesday before the national congress of the National Federation of Hunters for a great oral .

The presidential candidates are on Tuesday before the national congress of the National Federation of Hunters for a great oral, without Yannick Jadot and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, accused of "damaging" hunting and excluded from the guest list.

"Two of the main candidates have not been invited. Without prolonging the suspense, you will have guessed that they are Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Yannick Jadot", explained the president of the National Federation of Hunters, Willy Schraen , at the opening of the congress.

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If he recognizes everyone's "right to be critical of hunting", Willy Schraen "refuses that we damage hunting and its millions of practitioners under false pretexts, whether they are electoralists even simply demagogic, carefully omitting to meet the main interested parties before asking for an end to the hunt in the media".

The environmental candidate Yannick Jadot and his competitor leader of La France Insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon want to ban hunting on weekends and during school holidays, an opposition expressed in particular in February in reaction to the death of a hiker during a wild boar beat in Cantal.

Macron allowed "constructive exchanges", says the FNC

The president of the FNC was particularly critical of Yannick Jadot and environmentalists, "our main opponent".

Among the candidates, Jean Lassalle, Valérie Pécresse, Eric Zemmour and Fabien Roussel are announced in person to present their vision of the place of hunting and rurality.

Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron will be represented, according to the program announced by the FNC.

The President of the Republic, candidate for his succession, has allowed "more regular and more constructive exchanges than with his predecessors", underlined Willy Schraen, while opponents of hunting have often accused the Head of State of proximity to the "hunting lobby".

Hunting regularly comes up in political debate in France, the European country with the most hunters.

The National Federation of Hunters had just over a million members during the 2019-2020 season (before Covid).