this Sarthe farmer arrested and placed in police custody

Benoît Bulot, a farmer based in Saint-Aubin-des-Coudrais, in North Sarthe, and head of the list of the Sarthe Rural Coordination, for the elections to the chambers of agriculture, from January 15 to 31, was one of the farmers arrested in Orveau, in Essonne, Monday January 6, 2025.

Placed in police custody, notably for insults, the man was released during the day, after, according to him, six hours.

Everyone was trying to rally Paris to express their anger at the EU-Mercosur agreement, among others, which, according to them, will promote the import of goods at low costs and with less severe environmental standards than those imposed on them.

But the gendarmerie devices were important, on the border of the Paris region, to “block” the convoys.

“Two police officers pushed me violently”

“We wanted to meet our public authorities in Paris, and beforehand, we had a base in Essonne. Initially, the Government sent gendarmerie vans, then armored vehicles to block us,” recalls the Percheron farmer.

Who then stood in front of an armored vehicle “so that the tractors could pass through the dam”, and in a “completely peaceful” manner, the forty-year-old wishes to point out.

Summoned in February

Two gendarmes then pushed me violently. Then, a tractor wanted to pass, a gendarme stood in front of it and I shouted 'go ahead, go ahead!' It was then that two gendarmes from the armored unit handcuffed me before taking me to a nearby brigade for charges of rebellion and contempt of an agent. For this last fact, I am summoned to the Evry court on February 10 with a 600 euro fine required.

However, according to our colleagues at Actu Paris, “at least two tractors” would have succeeded “in circumventing the vigilance of the police. In a video posted on

“Not the right etiquette for protesting”

And the yellow hats of the Peasant Confederation do not seem to admit defeat since other operations, in a different department, are being developed… For Benoît Bulot, the Government's message is clear: “We do not have the correct etiquette for protesting. If we are FNSEA or JA, we have the right but the Peasant Confederation, we do not have the right. »

And the yellow hat assures him: “I know that there are risks in demonstrating, I accept them. I have no remorse or regrets,” says the man who does not say he is at all upset by his arrest.

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