The French Biodiversity Office was once again targeted on Wednesday, its departmental headquarters in Aude having been degraded in Trèbes, near Carcassonne, in a context of tension with farmers, we learned from a close source of the investigation.
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The entrance to the OFB representation in Aude was tagged and its gate set on fire, noted an AFP photographer. “From the dealers” was written in green paint on a low wall next to the burnt gate, in reference to comments made by an OFB agent on France Inter. He declared that if farmers do not want “no longer see us on their farms. It’s the same as if the dealers asked the police to no longer come to the cities.”
In recent days, actions led by farmers against the OFB have been recorded, for example in Toulouse where farmers' unions dumped waste in front of the regional headquarters of the OFB and caused damage.
-ALSO READ – “We are dealers so we drop off our goods”, tensions worsen between farmers and the OFB
During the night from Sunday to Monday, three OFB sites in Hérault were targeted by the anger of farmers. Sunday January 19 to Monday January 20. Tags had been written and trailers of flour and plaster dumped in front of the entrance to the buildings. Four days earlier, Thursday January 16, it was in Mende in Lozère that a building of the French Biodiversity Office had been targeted.
OFB agents are responsible for enforcing the rules regarding the use of pesticides, uprooting hedges or respecting drought orders, but also for controlling hunters, fighting against poaching or drug trafficking. protected species.
Relations have worsened with the rural world since the crisis which shook the profession last year, with some farmers complaining about controls considered intimidating, and since the declarations of Prime Minister François Bayrou during his general policy speech.
The head of government had described“humiliation“and “mistake” certain inspections by OFB agents, “a weapon in the belt on a farm already put on edge by the crisis”.
OFB unions denounce “repeated attacks, orchestrated by a large majority of agricultural unions”having “received a more than benevolent government listening”.
