The growing extremism of France’s eco warriors

In August 1999 a group of protestors demolished a McDonald’s restaurant under construction in Aveyron, southern France. Their leader was Jose Bové, a middle-class farmer, who whipped up his followers by declaring that ‘McDo is the symbol of the multinational who wants us to eat crap and make the farmers die’.

The French regard that summer’s day 23 years ago as the birth of the anti-globalist movement, the progenitor of a multitude of protest groups whose modus operandi has been direct action. Bové subsequently went into politics, representing the Green party in the European parliament between 2009 and 2019.

Today he is retired but his example continues to inspire radical environmentalists. This year alone there have been a succession of stunts, or attacks, depending on one’s point of view, carried out by groups claiming to act for the good of the planet.

Last week golfers in the Toulouse area arrived at their clubs for a round to discover that activists from Extinction Rebellion had vandalised greens and poured cement into holes, a sabotage that was replicated in Limoges at the weekend, although on this occasion vegetables were planted in the holes.