By Alison Hird – RFI

 https://www.modernghana.com/news/1148416/french-hunters-seize-election-opportunity-to-defen.html

EUROPE4 HOURS AGOLISTEN

AFP – CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU

Hunting is France’s most popular pastime after fishing and football, but a series of recent shooting accidentshas put its many enthusiasts in the firing line themselves. As presidential candidates fish for votes, the hunters see an opportunity to go on the offensive to defend a popular tradition dating back to the revolution.

Some four million people hold alicence to hunt in France, and 1.1 million activate them each year.

“We’re a political force,” William Schraen, president of theNational Federation of Hunters(FNC), confidently told a number of presidential candidates at a meeting in Paris last week.

The hunting lobby is strongand even if the majority of French people live in urban areas, no politician with an eye on the Elysée can afford to neglect the rural vote.

“Hunting is part of the soul of the…