the essential
From January 15 to 31, 2025, farmers in Tarn-et-Garonne are called to the polls to elect their representatives in their consular chamber. Three lists were submitted for the main college, supported by an alliance between the FDSEA and the JA, the Peasant Confederation and the Rural Coordination.
The elections to the Chamber of Agriculture of Tarn-et-Garonne have been officially launched on December 20, 2024. Applicants to the consular chamber had until December 16 at 12 p.m. to submit their candidacies to the prefecture. Which has, via its commission for organizing electoral operations, drew lots the order of each of them.
Thus, the prefectural decree signed by the general secretary Edwige Darracq on December 20 and published three days later concludes that three collectives were formed for college 1, farm managers and similar. Unsurprisingly, the Rural Coordination, an alliance between the Departmental Federation of Farmers' Unions (FDSEA) and the Young Farmers (JA), as well as the Peasant Confederation, submitted their 18 candidates within the deadline.
Three unions for college 1
The first list drawn at random is that of Rural Coordination (CR), renamed “100% farmer, together, let's win our freedom”. And as predicted by The Dispatchdespite the denials of the main interested party, Pierre-Guillaume Mercadal is indeed the designated candidate of the organization to potentially access the position of president. In any case, he is the one who appears in first position on the list sent to state services.
Election: instructions for use
The official election campaign begins on January 7, 2025 and runs until January 30. People registered on specific electoral lists can then vote electronically or by mail from midnight on January 15 until 11:59 p.m. on January 31, the prefecture reports.
There are a total of ten colleges (1, 2, 3A, 3B, 4, 5A, 5b, 5C, 5D, 5E) which each weigh a different point. Thus, college 1, that of operating managers and similar, has 18 seats to be filled for 3,500 voters. They are 50% filled by the list that comes first, the other seats going proportionally. College 4, that of retirees, is only entitled to one seat despite 8,500 voters.
Those called to the polls, whether electronically or by mail, will receive the voting arrangements in their mailbox no later than ten days before the end of the vote, the Hôtel des Intendants further indicates.
The results should be known during the first week of February. Before the election, in the narrow senseto the presidency.
And this despite the fact that he was sentenced at first instance to twelve months in prison with suspended probation for cyberharassment and contempt, against the mayor of the town where he is based, Christian Eurgal, his wife, the mayor of Valence-d 'Agen Jean-Michel Baylet and the journalist of La Dépêche du Midi from Tarn-et-Garonne, Max Lagarrigue.
This main sentence was accompanied by provisional execution. On the other hand, it did not concern the additional sentence of five years of ineligibility issued by the Montauban judicial court. Thus, the defendant's appeal (followed by the prosecution) causes the additional sentence to be lifted and allows him to stand for election.
By appealing, Mr. Mercadal is no longer ineligible
The breeder based in Montjoi precedes in the list of candidates Jean-Michel Arières, Julien's father, also convicted at first instance during the same trial, since found guilty of contempt of a person holding public authority and received with a fine of 300 euros, with the obligation to complete a citizenship course at his own expense, is a substitute on this same list.
Mr. Mercadal, Stéphanie Delbouys and Christian Schievene, president of the departmental union and sixteenth on the list, are candidates for seats in the regional consular chamber.
FDSEA and JA together, the Peasant Confederation too
For the joint FDSEA-JA list presented to the press on December 17, it is Damien Garrigues, the president of the first union, who is in position number 1. Benjamin Cecchin, president of the Young Farmers, is runner-up on the list while Barbara Castagné is number 3. Followed by Jean-Philippe Viguié, Jean-Baptiste Guibert and Delphine Delpouch, all three candidates, with Patrice Raujol, in the chamber regional.
Finally, the Peasant Confederation has also formed a collective of 18 names, started by Clément Goetghebeur, Céline Gay and Vincent Potier, and accompanied by Jean-Claude Scholz as applicants to the consular chamber of Occitanie.
