“The red line has been crossed” : Françoise Tahéri, the prefect of Landes, strongly condemns this Thursday, November 21, the damage committed the previous evening, in Mont-de-Marsan, by farmers from the Rural Coordination. Since this Wednesday, November 20, members of the Rural Coordination from Lot-et-Garonne, Béarn and Gers came to lend a hand to those from Landes and blocked Scalandes, the Leclerc purchasing center and storage platform, along the Mont-de-Marsan ring road. In the evening, they also carried out two other actions: they dumped straw, tires and rubbish in front of the MSA, and lit a fire in the compound of the DDTM, the Departmental Directorate of Territories and the Sea.
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Attack on property and people
It is this action in particular that the prefect strongly condemns: “a fire was lit on the public highway, and farmers voluntarily, I mean voluntarily, moved it into the DDTM compound, in the immediate vicinity of the premises, while there were agents who were in working inside. So that's unacceptable, the red line has clearly been crossed.” Françoise Tahéri who says she understands the anger of farmers, while demonstrators from the FDSEA and the JA demonstrated on Monday, November 18 in front of the prefecture and dumped straw there, erecting a wall of straw bales in front of the entrance to the prefectural hotel. But “the Minister of the Interior's slogan is clear, he repeated it again this morning: no attacks on property or people.”
A complaint filed
“I strongly condemn these actions and I will file a complaint this afternoon. This is the first time that I will file a complaint since I have been prefect of Landes (Editor's note: since January 2022), while there have been demonstrations by farmers, hunters…but I have never had to file a complaint until now. But there, the red line was clearly crossed.” she insists.
Françoise Tahéri who poses an ultimatum to the farmers of Rural Coordination : “I called the president, Vincent Coco, I told him that trust was broken. Because we had agreed, when we met, that there would be demonstrations but that are taking place in good conditions. Today I am counting on him to ensure that the Scalandes will be released by Friday evening at the latest.”
And if not? “By Friday evening at the latest, it will not be tolerable for blockages to continue beyond that” concludes Françoise Tahéri.
“If we have to do three times more, we can do three times more”
This Thursday, November 21, Vincent Coco, the president of CR 40, was the guest of France Bleu Gascogne at 8:15 a.m. He took responsibility for these punchy actions : “We are not listened to, so we take action, that's it. It's easy to file a complaint against the farmers. The little fires of Saint John are a bit like the brand image of the Coordination Rural, and it's not over, when we see how the government is leading us on, it doesn't scare us, and if we have to do three times more, we can do three times more.”
