« This was not a demonstration. It was an attack,” said an agent of France’s Office of Biodiversity (OFB), the environmental police. On April 11, the OFB’s Lot-et-Garonnais headquarters in Clairac the target of a strike operation It is governed by Rural Coordination 47 (CR47), which does not accept a farmer being fined for cleaning a ditch. A water tank was spilled on the parking lot. And opening the eternal sludge valves. “There was a cordon of law enforcement officers a few meters away. It is difficult to live with the feeling that no one protects us”, – continues the employee of the environmental protection police.
Asbestos boards, pot-bellied boar…
CR47 methods are emulated. In Gers, the headquarters of the OFB…
« This was not a demonstration. It was an attack,” said an agent of France’s Office of Biodiversity (OFB), the environmental police. On April 11, the OFB’s Lot-et-Garonnais headquarters in Clairac the target of a strike operation It is governed by Rural Coordination 47 (CR47), which does not accept a farmer being fined for cleaning a ditch. A water tank was spilled on the parking lot. And opening the eternal sludge valves. “There was a cordon of law enforcement officers a few meters away. What’s hard to live with is the feeling that no one is protecting us,” the environmental police officer continues.
Sheets of asbestos, disemboweled boar…
CR47 methods are emulated. The headquarters of the OFB in Gers was recently attacked. A few months ago, the entrance to the administrative city of Pau was covered with garbage. Beneath the tons of tires, plants and puddles of sludge were pieces of fiber cement sheets that agents had walked in and out of before the asbestos became visible. “They got rid of their waste. But it’s hard to imagine that they don’t know how dangerous asbestos is,” said a staff representative from the administrative city.
The messages addressed to the administration in Agen, a hotbed of protest, were even more open. A wild boar was hanged and gutted in front of the labor inspectorate buildings. “We were all shocked. It felt like a mob movie. The danger is clear,” laments a labor inspector from Nouvelle-Aquitaine. “We all made contact with Saussignac,” adds another official.
Saussignac. About twenty years ago, on September 2, 2004, it was named after this village in the Dordogne. a farmer, Claude Duviau, killed a labor inspector with two bullets, Sylvie Tremouille and MSA supervisor Daniel Buffière came to check it out. “We all have this event in our minds. It marked my entry into administration,” says the inspector. Although it claims to condemn the farmer’s action, organizations such as CR47 create uncertainty. Some time after the tragedy, he created Rapid Action Force, supervisors and farmer groups between supervisors. To officially “protect” the controller…
“Control coup”
“The agents have Saussignac in mind. But farmers also take it as a reference. We regularly hear them say: “Remember Saussignac,” explains the labor inspector. The CR47 took over in Lot-et-Garonne a few weeks ago draw “red lines”. to express the “prohibition” of control. On the Facebook page of Serge Bouquet-Cassa, the head of the administration’s powerful Chamber of Agriculture, a farmer threatened: “Behind this red line, I no longer answer to anything. »
Faced with these attacks, Gabriel Attal showed understanding to the farmers and promised “unified control”, while public speeches in support of the controllers were rare. Like post-harm complaints. “Imagine that such actions are directed against police officers or police stations. The Minister of Internal Affairs would be there during the day. We are still waiting for a message from our minister,” laments Cyrille Oyharchabal, CGT manager of the Labor Inspectorate.
“Agents no longer see meaning in their profession. As soon as they issue tickets, they are accused of being militants. Indeed, the world has turned upside down,” laments Guillaume Rulin, national coordinator of the Environment, Forestry and Agriculture union within the OFB. “We have entered the period of control seizure. The state itself is involved in this and we feel abandoned in the open countryside,” laments Camille Planchenault, Aquitaine manager of Sud Travail. In an internal leaflet targeting the events of Lot-et-Garonne in particular, the union expresses its anger at the “prefect’s silence”: “The question is no longer if there will be a new Saussignac, but when. »
“As part of the mission to evaluate the law that created the OFB, I interviewed the senators. Some questions confused me. Guillaume Rulin adds that it was as if we had to justify the application of the law.
“They see us as pests”
Did the strong arm techniques pay off? Pierre Fabre (Dreets), deputy regional director for economy, employment, work and solidarity, said: “Since the beginning of the crisis, there has been a denial of control in the agricultural sector, “it’s a matter of common sense. To avoid exposing the integrity of the agents.” Same story at OFB. “Tensioned the activity of the administrative police in the agrarian field stops. Until now, although there have always been isolated interventions to ask us to look elsewhere, everything is different here, we have entered a system”, adds Guillaume Rulin, who is also sure that “In judicial police missions, in departments like Lot-et-Garonne, the agents do not feel safe and the prosecutor’s office tells us that they cannot guarantee it.
“Agents don’t feel safe, and the prosecutor’s office tells us they can’t guarantee that.”
The OFB and the labor inspectorate, which together with the MSA concentrate most of the actions of the agricultural indignation, are nevertheless sure that they devote only a small part of their activities to agriculture. “Approximately 3% of the labor inspectorate controls the target agriculture, and more than this 3% is limited to a letter of observation,” the inspector says. Guillaume Rulin smiles:
“With the means at our disposal, every hundred years the operation will be managed by the OFB.” “The peculiarity of inspections conducted by OFB or the labor inspectorate is that they are not announced. However, the headquarters of the farm is the farmer’s house. Sometimes there is a feeling of intrusion, because in their opinion, you should be invited to someone’s house before coming there,” the civil servant analyzed.
Another notes: “The control of the OFB and the labor inspectorate, unlike the CAP, is not related to any aid or subsidy. Many farmers accept our supervision very well. But others think that we are of no use to them. » The third continues: “That’s why some see us as pests. Like this boar hanging from a tree. »