2023-12-11 07:36:51
The National Federation of Hunters of France has presented this Tuesday its own list to compete in the European Elections on June 9, 2024. Under the name “Rural Alliance”, the initiative has emerged “to defend hunting and the rural world and stop the environmentalist and animalist drift of the European institutions in recent years” and, be careful, because the candidacy could shake the French political board and weaken Marine Le Pen’s National Rally.
The head of the “Rural Alliance” list is the president of the National Federation of Hunters of France, Willy Schraen. He is accompanied by representatives of agriculture, livestock, fishing, bullfighting, viticulture and restaurants. As Schraen himself stated during the presentation, “it is an apolitical list, which aims to bring together people who defend the common interests of the rural world.”
In line with the Peasant Movement (BBB) of Holland, the initiative has emerged as “a response to the situation of abandonment and marginalization suffered by rural residents, who are affected by the decisions of urban elites who do not understand their way of life.” In this sense, the representative of the French hunters has denounced that they are “fed up with the European directives, laws and regulations that ruin our lives and prevent us from living in peace.”
A Macron project?
Schraen has always been linked to politics. He was elected councilor of Broxeele (Pas-de-Calais) at the age of 18. In the 2014 municipal elections, he became municipal councilor of Bayenghem-les-Eperlecques (Pas-de-Calais) and was re-elected in the 2020 municipal elections.
Hated by animal activists, Schraen published in 2020 A hunter in the field: for a defense of rurality (ed. Gerfaut) to defend the “often caricatured” rural world and that it must be “modern and innovative”, but also “respecting nature and traditions.” Shortly after, defended cat hunting “because of the threat they represent to biodiversity”, which is why he received around 2,000 death threats, according to figures from his lawyer.
French media link Schraen to Emmanuel Macron and the vice president of the National Group (AN), Sébastien Chenu, assures that the Rural Alliance list has been “secretly driven” by Macron himself to try to “steal 1%” of the right-wing candidates. But at this point, the issue is not the candidates, but the voters because a non-negligible part of the AN electorate comes from rural areas and Schraen only needs to reach 5% of the votes to obtain representation in the European Parliament.
“The beginning of change”
The president of the Royal Spanish Hunting Federation (RFEC), Manuel Gallardo, attended this Tuesday the presentation of the candidacy of hunting and the rural world in France.
Gallardo has assured that he feels “very identified with the project that is presented in France.” He has also added that he considers him “a reference” for the Spanish federation and has committed to “following in his footsteps to build a new europe more social, more sensitive, more sustainable and more rural”.
In this sense, the president of the RFEC considers that at this point “where urban policies are destroying the rural world and the activities that support it” it is essential that “the voice of millions of European citizens be heard in the European Parliament.” who demand to be able to live according to their customs and not be subject to policies that expel them from their natural habitat and push them into the concrete jungle. Today is the beginning of change,” he concluded.
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