Like many colleagues, Bernard Lannes is an angry cereal and poultry farmer. But the reason for his wrath goes beyond the situation of French agriculture alone. The former president of Rural Coordination (CR) – from 2010 to 2022 –, present at the creation, thirty years ago, of this union hostile to the co-management of agriculture between the State and the National Federation of Unions of agricultural operators (FNSEA), denounces the drift of a “union losing its independent and apolitical specificity”. From the events of the Agricultural Show, followed remotely from his farm in Gers, he only remembers the unpleasant.
The declarations to Figaroon February 25, by Emmanuel Macron, associating the organization with the National Rally (RN), on the grounds that “local decision-makers from Rural Coordination are very officially involved in the National Gathering.” The lunch between the union leadership and Jordan Bardella – “In my time, we would never have done it, nor received with great fanfare Marine Le Pen or François Ruffin [député insoumis de la Somme] “. And the shift, according to him, of the internal balance of the union: “It is Lot-et-Garonne and its representatives who are taking control of the movement. We will really have to talk about it after all these posturings. »
In the crosshairs of the former boss of the CR, a man and his troops: Serge Bousquet-Cassagne, president of the Lot-et-Garonne chamber of agriculture since 2013, one of three run in France by the union . Many observers of the farming world saw his hand in the muscular welcome given to the Head of State on Saturday February 24, the day of the inauguration of the show.
Powerstroke
The “yellow caps” of the CR were not alone in the coup, which also included representatives of the majority unions, the FNSEA and the Young Farmers, and a few agitators associated with the extreme right. But Emmanuel Macron took advantage of it to, in the process, establish a link between the CR and the RN, an association that the majority organizations have been establishing for years and which both the union and the party deny.
It must be said that Serge Bousquet-Cassagne has recently been overcome with real Lepénist enthusiasm. This fan of shock phrases and actions unsuccessfully sought a place on the RN list in the European elections in June, according to our information. And has not heeded calls from union leadership to mute his political views.
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