He has been in the spotlight since the start of the movement. A breeder in Haute-Garonne where he launched with others the first roadblock for farmers, Jérôme Bayle has become a figure in the protest in the agricultural world. At 42 years old, with thick beard and head most often covered with a cap, the operator based in Montesquieu-Volvestre (Haute-Garonne), has become the media leader of the movement, appearing on television sets for more than a week .
But since this Friday evening, after having announced the lifting of the Carbonne dam (southwest of Toulouse) following the announcements made by the Prime Minister, the cattle breeder has especially been singled out on social networks for having too much easily surrendered to the government. A video extract initially broadcast by BFMTV, widely shared on the X platform (formerly Twitter), fueled the wildest rumors concerning the so-called “connivance” of the Occitan breeder with the authorities.
The hashtag #SonRIB among the most shared keywords on X
In this widely commented and re-shared sequence, we see the cattle breeder giving a small piece of paper to Christophe Béchu, Minister of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, who was sitting next to him during the speech. by Gabriel Attal. It was enough for some Internet users to imagine the most outlandish theories, and consider the breeder as “a traitor”.
Many have tried to explain, with supporting images, that the “piece of paper” contained the breeder’s bank details. The hashtag #SonRIB even rose this Saturday morning among the most shared keywords on the X platform. “Jérôme Bayle surely hands over his RIB and his phone to Christophe Béchu. In any case, there is a transaction, a well-orchestrated arrangement”, tweets an Internet user or even “It is the amount of his invoice or his RIB that Bayle sends to Béchu”, also wonders another user of the platform.
“I refused a position because of my silence”
Asked this Saturday morning about the rumors of which he is the victim on social networks, the cattle breeder quickly denied them. “Contrary to what people think, it’s not my RIB. I hope you don’t think I’m stupid enough to believe that I’m capable of giving my RIB directly […] On this paper, it was the telephone number of a person who wrote to me. She is in a complicated situation, it was to see if the government could help her with her children,” declared the farmer on the microphone of BFMTV.
Jérôme Bayle also explained, to attest to his good faith, that before the start of the movement, he had “refused a position” against his “silence”, without specifying the nature of the position offered. And to justify the lifting of the Carbonne dam, which is criticized by some, he claimed to have “won” on three main points: the abandonment of the increase in the tax on non-road diesel (GNR), irrigation and aid for breeders in the face of epizootic haemorrhagic disease (EHD).