EC warns France re hunting

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

BRUSSELS––The European Commission on June 24 asked
the European Court to fine France more than $100,000 per day for
exempting itself from a 1979 EC directive which limits hunting seasons
to protect migratory birds.
The coalition-led French parliament on June 19 defied
French environment minister and Green Party leader Dominique
Voynet by voting 92-20 to extend the current five-month bird shooting
season––already the longest in Europe––to seven months. Of the 577-
member parliament, 465 did not vote, but no quorum was needed.

The French bird season is now set to open on July 14,
Bastille Day, as a reminder, pro-hunting spokespersons said, that the
French Revolution came about in part because the peasantry demanded
the rights to possess guns and kill wildlife.
About 150,000 of the estimated 1.5 million hunters in
France repeatedly hanged Voynet in effigy at a boorish march through
Paris on Valentine’s Day.
Green MP Noel Mamere denounced 37 Socialists who voted
for the extended season as “traitors” to the Green/Socialist coalition,
and hinted that Green participation might be near an end.