Auch (France) (AFP) – The president of the Rural Coordination (CR) Bertrand Venteau, judged for having said that it was necessary to "get rid of" environmentalists, defended himself Thursday before the Auch criminal court, arguing that it was a "purely political" remark, made in a private context.

Published on: 03/09/2026 - 18:29

During the CR congress on November 19, 2025, which made him head of the second agricultural union in France, Bertrand Venteau declared to applause: "the ecologists, the decline wants to kill us, we must kill them".

Prosecuted by environmental organizations France Nature Environnement and Génération Future which have filed civil suits, the union leader is being tried for "public and direct provocation without effect, to commit a crime or misdemeanor".

The president of the court was surprised by the "private nature" of the trade unionist's comments even though the statement was reported by the press present at the congress.

A video filmed by journalists was broadcast at the hearing, while Bertrand Venteau claimed not to have seen a camera that day.

He affirmed that his call “to skin the ecologists” was part of the “debate of ideas”.

During a hearing which lasted two and a half hours, the prosecutor denounced “hate speech”.

“It’s making fun of the world! He knew very well that it would be filmed and that it would be broadcast,” refuted the prosecutor.

He requested a fine of 30,000 euros with suspended sentence. “He must understand that we cannot say just anything,” he said.

Climate of intimidation

Environmental associations for their part denounced "a climate of intimidation", "the deterioration of the possibility of being able to exchange" with the agricultural union.

Before being prevented from doing so by the president of the court, the defense lawyer tried to assert that her client had been subjected to "double standards (...) in the speed of processing of cases" while it was to the Auch public prosecutor's office that the Lyhanna case was handled slowly.

She requested acquittal, pleading that the comments against environmentalists were a “metaphor”.

Outside the court, with bales of straw and a few tractors in support, more than two hundred members of the Rural Coordination had mobilized, supervised by a CRS company.

Wearing their "yellow caps", the characteristic headgear of the agricultural union, they gave their voice in an initially good-natured atmosphere to support their leader.

Before entering the court, the union official used his flowery language to harangue the crowd on the microphone on the flatbed trailer decorated with posters on the theme "To save a farmer, eat a vegan": he accused the Minister of the Interior Laurent Nunez of "bullshit" and the government of lacking "balls".

Among his supporters, José Perez, president of the CR of Lot-et-Garonne denounced the legal proceedings "for ridiculous reasons" and a "punitive ecology which is killing French agriculture". “If we let them do it, we will be left with wasteland, roses and wild boars,” he said.

With barely veiled words, the Auch court, whose services were called into question in the slow processing of the Lyhanna affair, was often blacklisted: "the courts have other things to do, particularly this one!", launched the president of the Lot-et-Garonne chamber of agriculture Karine Duc into the microphone.

The atmosphere then deteriorated when around fifteen ecologists and members of the Peasant Confederation entered the court to boos, throwing eggs and firecrackers.

“No one should appear in court under whistles and jeers. This is not worthy of a political and union fight!” thundered the president of the court.

At the end of the hearing, the plaintiffs, ecologists and members of the Landscape Confederation, were once again subjected to the release of rotten eggs.

The Court's decision was reserved until October 15.

© 2026 AFP

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