Rural Coordination announces that it will contact the IGPN after the arrest of a farmer in the Gers

The agricultural union denounces a disproportionate police intervention, while the authorities defend action carried out in compliance with “the legal framework”.

In a press release, the Gers Rural Coordination announced, Sunday December 28, that it would contact the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) and the public prosecutor after the arrest of a farmer in Auch, in the Gers, on Saturday evening.

During a demonstration in Auch, a farmer sprayed the facade of the newspaper La Dépêche du Midi with a spreader, indicates, in a press release, the Gers prefecture. His tractor was installed across the road. CRS intervened to ask the driver to stop and “to immobilize your machine”reports the prefecture.

“Despite these injunctions”the farmer maneuvered with his tractor and advanced towards the police, forcing them to draw their weapons for new summons continues the prefecture. The farmer was then arrested and taken into custody around 11 p.m. He was released around 4 a.m. according to the Gers Rural Coordination.

An incident which outrages the agricultural union, which “believes that the irreparable has been done” and describes this scene as “lunar” and indicates that the farmer arrested “was just repositioning his wheels on the road”.

The Gers Rural Coordination designates, in its press release, the Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard as “responsible for the current situation, with the implementation of an excessive health policy”reference to the health protocol in place to prevent the spread of bovine lumpy skin disease. The union “asks the Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu and the Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, to present an official apology”.

The Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, indicates on his X account that “the police intervened in compliance with the legal framework” and that“no violent expression can be accepted” as part of agricultural events.