Lyon: environmentalists file complaint against Laurent Wauquiez after his attacks on the OFB

"The President of the Region and his special advisor used regional public funds to obstruct the regular mission of sworn agents representing the State." The left-wing opposition responded to attacks on the OFB by Laurent Wauquiez , who remained a special advisor to the President of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Fabrice Pannekoucke . Pierre Janot, a non-party regional advisor sitting in the environmentalist group, reported this initiative to the Lyon public prosecutor in a complaint filed on Tuesday, February 25. He points out the use of public funds for this campaign conducted without the consent of elected officials.

"They sent a letter with the letterhead of the Region's general services without ever having a deliberation from the standing committee or the plenary assembly to rely on ," the opposition elected official explained to Le Figaro . "A letter that also aims to hinder environmental justice." In their letter, published shortly before the opening of the agricultural fair, Fabrice Pannekoucke and Laurent Wauquiez assured that they wanted to eliminate this environmental police force, described as a "coalition of ideologues" preventing farmers from "working and living with dignity." They even offered farmers targeted by OFB procedures the benefit of legal aid from the region.

In doing so , "the regional council is covering the legal costs of people who may have committed violations of the environmental code," Pierre Janot attacks in his complaint. The financial support is not committed to supporting the general interest but on the contrary to defend a part of the agricultural corporation that would find itself in this bad fight and therefore for a purely electoralist purpose." The lawyer by training recalls Laurent Wauquiez's commitment to the campaign to take the head of the Les Républicains party, facing Bruno Retailleau .

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Laurent Wauquiez's initiative "incites and encourages acts of rebellion, obstruction and resistance" , according to the opposition elected official. Enough to fuel the accusations of "Trumpism" launched by environmentalists since the start of this anti-OFB campaign. Several actions by farmers against the OFB have been carried out in recent weeks while the FNSEA had requested a suspension of controls .

They had led Sylvie Gustave-dit-Duflo, chairwoman of the OFB board of directors, to recall in mid-January that "only 7.5% of the annual controls carried out by the OFB have a connection with the agricultural world". The Minister of Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, also defended the office at the beginning of the week. "We are not going to eliminate the water and nature police, just as we are not going to eliminate the national police or the gendarmerie" , she wrote on the social network X.