Bové, José

   French MEP, elected to the European parliament on the list of the French greens in June 2009. Highly mediatized and self-styled leader of theConfédération Paysanne, an initially unofficial protest grouping of small farmers established as a backlash against the accelerating fall in the number and economic viability of France's small farms. Bové himself is a producer of Roquefort cheese, living on the barren Causses in southern central France. However his campaign in defence of the French small farmer developed into a more general anti-capitalist and anti-globalisation movement, with Bové being arrested twice and sentenced to prison firstly for leading a group of protestors in demolishing a partly built McDonald's restaurant in the town of Millau, and later for breaking into an agricultural research facility and uprooting thousands of genetically modified plants. When first sent to prison, Bové capitalised on the event by driving himself to the jail at the head of a procession of tractors, which received massive media coverage. To avoid a repeat of this, police arrested him a second time in 2003 with a spectacular dawn raid on his farmhouse, carrying Bové off to jail in a helicopter. While avoiding a second Bové media circus, the means employed in this arrest were seriously criticised throughout the media. Since the mid 1990's, Bové has also been present at most major international economic and social forums - including Puerto Alegre and Seattle - leading to accusations that he is not really the typical small farmer he claims to be.