the government is raising its voice

Sunday, October 30, the Ministry of the Interior broadcast the image of a gendarme targeted by a mortar-type fireworks shot. Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, announced 61 wounded in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres), including 20 seriously, on the side of the gendarmes. The government raised its tone following the banned demonstration because it fears the installation of a ZAD, an occupation of land like in Notre-Dame-des-Landes (Loire-Atlantique). The airport project had to be abandoned in 2018. In Sivens (Tarn), in 2014, an activist also died on a water retention project, from a grenade shot by a gendarme.

Nearly 1,700 members of the security forces were mobilized during the weekend. For their part, the demonstrators announced 50 injuries. Left-wing elected officials, in particular Lisa Belluco, deputy for Europe Ecology-The Greens of Vienne, say they have been molested. Sandrine Rousseau, deputy EELV – NUPES of Paris, approved in the morning of Sunday, on BFMTV, the demonstration. “I support disobedience without violence”, she said. On franceinfo, Aurélien Pradié, LR deputy for Lot, believes that “there is no longer any political authority”. The government announced, in the evening, the maintenance of 1,000 gendarmes on the spot.