He wants to “defend” an “endangered rurality”. For the European elections scheduled for June 2024, hunters will be defended in particular by the internationally renowned leader Pierre Gagnaire who will appear on the list of the president of the French hunters’ federation Willy Schraen. The restaurateur, three stars in the Michelin Guide, clarified on Tuesday, confirming information from the Pointthat it would be in the “not eligible” position on the “Rural Alliance” list which should be launched in France on December 6.
Pierre Gagnaire spoke on the sidelines of the promotion in New York of Tran Anh Hung’s film on gastronomy, The passion of Dodin Bouffantfor which he was a culinary advisor and which must represent France at the Oscars in 2024 under the title The Taste of Things. The 73-year-old leader assures that the “Rural Alliance” list is “a completely apolitical movement, obviously”.
Defend “our territory”
Pierre Gagnaire, alongside the president of the National Federation of Hunters, intends to “defend rurality in its entirety (…) with the concern of protecting nature, hunting, our culture”. It’s about “defending our territory, know-how, everything related to gastronomy,” insists this international star of French cuisine, who has his main restaurant in Paris and others notably in Aix-en- Provence, London, Dubai, Shanghai, Tokyo.
“To eat you have to kill. Killing a vegetable, killing a flower, unfortunately,” he explains. “I’m just a cook and modestly in my little place I just say be careful there is a form of rurality that is in danger.” The “Rural Alliance” list will be “not a hunting list, nor a political list”, an advisor to Willy Schraen indicated at the beginning of November, with 81 candidates making up “a patchwork of all facets of the rural world” (doctor, nurse, association leader, business manager) but “very few hunters”.