Well-armed gastronome refuses to abandon his traditional rights

While their fellow countrymen celebrated Bastille Day and the World Cupvictory by dancing in the streets, France's hunters built little huts in marshlands and poised their rifles for wild ducks, geese and snipe. For them, killing and cooking these creatures was an appropriate way to celebrate the 209th anniversary of the French Revolution. For until 1789 only the nobility were allowed to hunt. And as French governments have learned to their grief, once you give a right to a Frenchman, you cannot take it from him.With two million hunters, the French are by far the most enthusiastic pursuers of wild birds and game in Europe. The Italians and Spanish come in second, with a million each, followed by 600,000 Britons and 300,000 Germans. Not only is hunting part of folk memory of the revolution, it is linked to another French obsession: gastronomy. Nothing is tastier than a jig of roast venison or a wild duck which has fed on grass and fresh water snails, the hunters will tell you.Little matter that the shooting of migrating waterfowl before September 1st or after January 31st violates European law and threatens birds while they migrate to their nesting grounds. To hell with Brussels, say the French hunters. For two centuries they have gone shooting from July through February. It is part of their Jacobin tradition and no one will deter them.This year, for the first time, they are hunting under the protection of a French law, voted by the Senate last winter and confirmed by the National Assembly on June 19th. In outright defiance of the EU Commission, the law extended the French hunting season from July 14th until February 28th, making it two and a half months longer than the rest of Europe.The man who drew up the law is not a revolutionary but a French aristocrat named Roland du Luart, a right-wing senator from the Sarthe region described by Le Monde as "one of the finest and most elegant triggers of the [Senate] Luxembourg Palace". Mr du Luart owns a chateau and a vast estate, where he hunts everything from stags to partridges. Hunting transcends political divisions in France, and one of Mr du Luart's favourite shooting companions is the Socialist senator, Michel Charasse.The Environment Minister, Dominique Voynet of the Green Party, miscalculated the strength of the hunting lobby. She should have known things were turning against her on February 14th, when 150,000 hunters from across the political spectrum marched through Paris in a show of strength before regional elections. Some of their posters showed Ms Voynet trussed up like game, and the hunters scared little old ladies in the capital by parading wild boars' heads on pikes. Ms Voynet should have remembered that a small party called Hunting, Fishing, Nature and Traditions tipped the balance in ballots for presidents of three of France's 22 regional councils last March; in the south-west region of Aquitaine, the hunters got 14 per cent of the vote.Ms Voynet was so sure the Greens' Socialist allies would support her in defeating the anti-EU hunting law that she didn't bother to lobby the parliamentary deputies. Yet the 126-strong (out of 577) hunters' group within the Assembly is headed by a Socialist; 59 of its members are Socialists, 59 are from the centre-right UDF and RPR, and two are Communists.The run-up to the National Assembly vote was nasty. The office of the Socialist deputy for the Somme, Vincent Peillon, was sacked by hunters' associations when he tried to oppose the law. Grafitti addressed to Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said they were "sending Mr Peillon back to Paris" because he had let the hunters down. In the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, hunters blocked TGV trains and barricaded border crossings.So when voting day came, the deputies deserted the floor in record numbers. The law was passed by 92 votes to 20 - in an Assembly of 577 members. Opinion polls show that 60 per cent of French people would like to see hunting banned, yet only a few timid voices have dared challenge the hunting lobby.The French president, prime minister and speaker of parliament could have sent the law to the Constitutional Council for review, since article 55 of the French Constitution demands the respect of international treaties and agreements. The April 2nd 1979 EU directive on wild birds was signed unanimously - under a French EU presidency.But France's leaders were apparently afraid of stirring up anti-European sentiment, and quietly signed the decree, setting the country on a collision course with the European Court of Justice. The European Commission filed a complaint on June 24th.If France does not satisfy the Commission by late September, it may be fined 700,000 francs (£83,333) per day for violating EU regulations. Ms Voynet is frantically trying to mediate between the hunting lobby and the Commission, but the hunters won't bend.They say French law - and, more important, tradition - take priority over "the technocrats in Brussels". They vow to defy any European ruling, and, if need be, march on Brussels.