The subject of hunting imposes itself in a dramatic way in the presidential campaign, following the death, Saturday February 19, of a young woman of 25 years, killed by a bullet during a beat with the boar, in the commune of Cassaniouze (Cantal), near Aurillac.
The public prosecutor in Aurillac, Paolo Giambiasi, announced to Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the suspected person, a 17-year-old girl, had been placed in police custody on Sunday morning – extended to Sunday evening – and that an investigation was opened for “manslaughter”. In France, a minor, from the age of 15, is authorized to hunt in the presence and under the responsibility of a guide.
Immediately, the reactions were not lacking on social networks and in the media. And this new fatal hunting accident reveals the divide that exists between those who want to regulate this activity more strictly, or even ban it on certain days of the week, such as weekends, and those who do not want to stigmatize the 1.173 million hunters “active”, that is to say in possession of a valid license in 2019, according to the National Federation of Hunters (FNC) – France is the European country with the largest number of hunters.
No longer go into the forest “scared in the stomach”
The environmental candidate for the presidential election, Yannick Jadot, immediately spoke on Twitter : “No one should die because of hunting anymore. I am committed in my program to prohibit hunting on weekends and school holidays. » Jean-Luc Mélenchon, candidate for La France insoumise (LFI) also asked on France 3 for a ban on hunting on weekends and during school holidays. “Secondly, we must stop selling weapons that are so powerful,” he added.
On the LFI side once more, MEP Manon Aubry estimated, on RMC, that “the forest must belong to hikers, walkers. Five days of the week are enough to go hunting. We must no longer go to the forest with fear in our stomachs. »
Conversely, Marine Le Pen, candidate for the National Rally, pleaded for the maintenance of traditional hunting. “If you prevent hunters from hunting on weekends, they won’t be able to hunt because they are working. (…) So, we have to succeed in finding a way so that walkers and hunters can safely enjoy our extraordinary domain.”she declared in the program “Political Questions” (France Inter-France Télévisions-The world).
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