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Published: 13/05/2024
Jean-Eudes Gannat was a former spokesman for a now-banned far-right group Alvarium
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A French wine festival has been forced to cancel an event after facing a so-called “campaign of intimidation” by left-wing activists.
La Fete des Vins d’Anjou-Saumur 2024 edition was cancelled after Jean-Eudes Gannat was alleged to have owned a stall serving stuffed buns.
Gannat was a former spokesman for a now-banned far-right group Alvarium.
The ban, which was enforced in 2021 by Emmanuel Macron’s Government, was upheld by the State Council.
Alvarium were accused of publishing “messages justifying discrimination against and hatred of foreigners or French people of immigrant origin by likening them to offenders, criminals, Islamists or terrorists”.
However, the Union of Producers of Great Wines axed the event after facing “a campaign of intimidation and threats of anti-racist protests”.
Activists accused the area’s 350 or so wine-makers of “supporting these people and therefore their ideas” by allowing them to have a stall at the two-day festival.
Around 15,000 people attend the two-day festival in the heart of the Loire Valley.
However, flyers have begun circulating around peaceful town of Chalonnes-sur-Loire denouncing the La Flamme Angevine stall.
La Flamme Angevine has had a stall at the wine festival for the last two years.
It specialises in fouées, a traditional bun stuffed with ingredients, including mushrooms and onions.
Left-wing activists accused the 350 local wine-makers of “supporting these people and therefore their ideas”.
Pascal Baruchi, the winemaking union’s chairman, denied the claim.
He said: “That’s defamation. Our committee is apolitical.”
Baruchi stressed he had been unaware of La Flamme Angevin’s links with the far right when it had been invited to the festival.
He also revealed the festival was cancelled as organisers were stuck between a “rock and a hard place”.
However, according to local outlets, Gannat claimed he had been the victim of “political discrimination”.
