farmers removed nearly 300 in 115 municipalities

It will be part of the memories of our mandate : Johann Ballanger, the mayor of Saint-Pardoux-Soutiers, in « rit » with hindsight. But at the time, “taken cold”, the elected had felt “a little upset”, he who claims to support the peasant world on a daily basis. His municipality is one of some 115, out of a total of 256 in the department, affected by the recent disappearance of one or more town entrance or exit signs.

It was a communication operation carried out by the Young Farmers of Deux-Sèvres, before several other actions in recent days in Niort, La Crèche then Champdeniers: they had removed around 285 road signs in one week, night and day. Before placing them in front of the prefecture hotel on the evening of Thursday November 7, 2024, or even hanging them on the gates.

Since then, the municipalities have been coming to collect them little by little: they had received a notice to this effect from the prefectural services. There are several dozen panels left, stored at the back of the main building. “I don’t have time to go,” notes Daniel Barré, the first magistrate of Chizé, in the temporary absence of his municipal agents, on leave.

In the 1990s, already

It should be done next week, thinks the elected official, who “smiles” remembering having carried out the same action with the association he founded, that of protection, information and study of water and its environment, the Apieee in other words: it was at the very beginning from the 1990s with signs indicating waterways, to raise awareness about the rivers that were dry at the time.

Three decades later, solidarity is in full swing. While going to get his own signs, the mayor of Vouhé collected those of Beaulieu-sous-Parthenay. Chief councilor of Saint-Marc-la-Lande, Pascal Olivier, took advantage of the fact that one of his constituents works in the city center of Niort and reports to him.

The mayor with his station wagon

Nicolas Gamache managed on his own, on Thursday November 28, 2024: the mayor of Châteliers stacked twelve in the trunk of his station wagon, which was « plein ». Joining Johann Ballanger, the elected official believes that farmers “have the wrong target”. He had also contacted Aidan Roberts, the general secretary of JA 79, on the social network Facebook just after the action, before communicating with him by messaging. But the chief magistrate did not file a complaint.

Unlike Marie-Pierre Missioux, elected in Cherveux: the president of the Association of Mayors of Deux-Sèvres did it “to protect yourself” just in case, judicially speaking. Because these signs also announce to road users that they are crossing a 50 zone. In her eyes, and she also told those concerned, this « buzz andwas a bad idea.”

“A morning for two”

In Saint-Pardoux-Soutiers, “we didn’t get everything back” informs Johann Ballanger. Of the twelve missing panels, generally costing between « 200 € » et « 500 € » depending on the length of the name of the commune, two or three are missing: those from the village of “Château-Bourdin”. The others were recovered last week: “It took two of us a good morning to put them back on. »

“I find that this means of action was rather nice in addition to being symbolic, it doesn’t break anything,” believes Alain Canteau. The mayor of Fors knows what he is talking about: his technical services had been broken into with a ram car the same evening as the JA 79 action, two of the three municipal vehicles being stolen. The “survivor” was used to recover the panels: sixteen in all. The record.