Bertrand Venteau, president of the Coordination rurale (CR), a major agricultural union in France, will appear in court on Thursday, September 2, in the town of Auch, in the Gers department. He faces charges of "public provocation, not followed by effect, to commit a crime or an offense." This charge relates to remarks he made in November, where he called for "making the skin of ecologists," a phrase interpreted as a call to confront environmental activists. During his election as head of the union in Auch on November 19, Venteau made the controversial statement while receiving applause from the audience. He claimed that "ecologists and degrowth advocates want to kill us," and urged that "we must make their skin." He further suggested that "we will have to go out and fight ecologists, by attacking them in court," and warned that "those who want our death are everywhere," emphasizing the need to resist them at every level of government. The comments by Venteau, a leader of the second-largest agricultural union in France, drew widespread criticism from elected officials and environmental groups. The prosecutor in Auch opened an investigation shortly after the remarks. The Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard, condemned the statement as "deeply shocking and unacceptable." The CR, however, defended Venteau, stating that his comments were aimed at a "political and ideological opponent" — a "punitive and degrowth ecology" that the union opposes. The CR clarified that Venteau was not advocating for physical violence against individuals. The upcoming trial has raised broader questions about the role of agricultural unions in France. The CR is using the case to ask whether the government is trying to silence a union that resists what it calls the "dominant discourse" on environmental issues. Meanwhile, the Confédération paysanne, another agricultural group, has taken a different stance. They claim to support "an agriculture respectful of the balance of life" and have criticized the CR's rhetoric, calling it "obscurantism and populist convenience" that shifts blame onto environmental activists. This group is participating in a separate rally in Auch to support environmental organizations like Friends of the Earth and France Nature Environnement (FNE), which filed complaints against Venteau.