Jérôme Przystupa would like to spend his life "making the planet more beautiful." In mid-June, in front of a bouquet of wildflowers, the 60-year-old farmer talked about his love of nature in the living room of his home in La Chapelle-Taillefert, in the middle of wooded hills in central France. This broad-shouldered farm owner discussed the great outdoors, his walks and all the animals he has collected over the last two decades at his Ferme des 3 Petits Cochons, which has 200 pigs. He's a true environmental activist, like Audrey, his partner of 47 years, and a long-time supporter of the NGO World Wildlife Fund.

In 1995, in the northern town of Liévin, Jérôme even ran as lead candidate for the Greens in the municipal elections. Surrounded by their two children, Louis and Lucas, aged 10 and 8, their five dogs (Wolf, Chippie, Heidi, Edelweiss and Sawyer) and their five cats (Voyou, Poussinette, Bouchon, Bébé Roux and Princesse), Jérôme and his wife pulled out an old campaign leaflet from their archives. In one photo, Jérôme, then a sports educator, smiles. Below the image, the future breeder denounced "Le Pen's fascist and hateful discourse."

Almost 30 years have passed since this political platform enabled him to become an adviser to the Liévin town council. Today, Jérôme works 12 to 14 hours a day. Rest days are rare. He has four full-time employees, including his partner, who is paid €1,500 net per month. Indebted, he has to pay back €4,000 a month after taking out a loan to buy the farm's equipment – Jérôme can't afford to pay himself in this "gulag," as he sometimes describes his working life.

So, on June 9, in the European elections, he supported the far-right Rassemblement National, which came out well ahead in his Creuse department (35.40% of the vote). "I would never have imagined casting a ballot for them one day," admitted the breeder. "But this time, the RN really has to win." In the first round of the parliamentary elections, he gave his vote to Bartolomé Lenoir, adviser to Eric Ciotti, the right-wing Les Républicains president who decided to join forces with the RN against the opinion of his party. Lenoir came out on top, ahead of the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) coalition with 33.2% of the vote. "We're very happy, even if we'd have liked even more votes," he said over the phone on July 1. Unsurprisingly, he will vote for Lenoir again on July 7, with the hope of tipping this constituency won in 2022 by the radical left La France Insoumise (LFI) party.

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