“Aberrant”. Cécile Michel, from the EELV group in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, does not hold back her words. She is “outraged” at the extension of thirty euros per year in aid from the Pass’Région to obtain hunting and fishing permits. This card, intended for 15-25 year olds, allows 370,000 young people in the region to benefit from free school textbooks, reductions on cinema tickets or sports activities. And soon, therefore, it will make it possible to handle the cane and the gun at a lower cost.
For Marie-Pierre Montoro-Sadoux, vice-president of the region in charge of youth, family and seniors, in charge of the file, it is simply a question of “giving a boost” to the “diverse and varied” activities. of young people. “Our ambition is simply to support the cost of practices for families,” she explains. We do it for culture, sport, the driving license in exchange for civic engagement. We do not forbid ourselves anything. »
A measure “welcomed” by the National Hunting Federation
But where does this sudden desire come from? Not a large number of practitioners in the area, says the vice-president who also specifies that she has no report or study on this subject. According The Dauphine Libere, 6% of current hunting license holders are between 15 and 24 years old in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. And the region is in third position in terms of “enthusiasts”, with 138,000 hunters, of all ages, behind Occitania and New Aquitaine. The latter has 209,000 practitioners, according to Barnes properties and castles.
It is therefore “through the daily relations with the families” that the idea germinated, assures Marie-Pierre Montoro-Sadoux before admitting that “the links with associations” also motivated the proposal. By “associations”, it means in particular the Regional Hunting Federation to which the region has just renewed its “partnership” – from 3.26 million grants for a period of three years.
The hunting world has moreover “welcomed” this ambition for the Pass’Région through its president, Willy Schraen. “To oppose this initiative by Laurent Wauquiez is to put his anti-hunting or anti-fishing ideology before the interests of young people”, did he react.
“Normalize a practice that consists of killing”
And there is opposition. In three days, more than 25,000 people signed a petition launched by the Savoie Animal Justice Association (Ajas) to oppose the project. For its president, Pauline di Nicolantonio, this aid is “inadmissible”.
“We are not questioning the Pass’Région but its instrumentalization, she develops. We cannot include hunting in the same way as other activities, that amounts to normalizing a practice which consists in killing. She points to “the image it sends back” of “putting guns in the hands of 15 or 16 year old children”. “There are so many other ways to get to know nature than hunting,” she breathes.
A point of view shared by the regional councilor EELV Cécile Michel. The latter recalls the “tragedies” that take place each year by hunters, stressing that the responsibility of politicians is “to avoid them, not to encourage them” through this “promotion” of hunting. Marie-Pierre Montoro-Sadoux simply replies that the ecologist’s words are “an erroneous shortcut” and that “the practice is perfectly regulated”.
Which sectors are more privileged than others?
“There are no other regions that base their proposals to such an extent on the Hunting Federation. It’s a powerful lobby here, ”she laments. For her, the stakes go beyond the card dedicated to young people. “This ‘helping hand’ seems problematic when we see the inequalities in the granting of subsidies in other areas,” says Cécile Michel. Before adding: “We have recently seen that Laurent Wauquiez cut funding in sectors where critical thinking is exercised”, referring to the field of culture.
This Friday, the permanent commission of the regional council halved the subsidy for the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, withdrew all regional aid to the Lyon Woodstower festival, as well as those dedicated to the New Generation theater in Lyon.
Faced with these criticisms, the region replies that it makes “no sense” to “compare actions aimed at hunting and fishing and actions aimed at cultivation”. “Subsidies are not an income, but support for actions carried out in all territories. 60% of the subsidies concern the metropolises, the region is keen to operate a rebalancing in the direction of these territories. The budget for culture is not being reduced by a single euro”, she communicates after requests from 20 minutes.