“Black blocks only sensitive to GM2L grenades”, reports a note from the gendarmerie

“The use of tear gas grenades was effective on the mass, but not on the black blocks only sensitive to GM2L grenades [un type de grenade lacrymogène assourdissante]”, details a note from the Sub-directorate for Operational Anticipation (SDAO) – the intelligence service of the gendarmerie – which France Inter obtained, following the demonstration against the basins in Sainte-Soline, in Deux- Sèvres, Saturday, March 25. This note provides an initial assessment of the mobilization and reviews the means dedicated to maintaining order.

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Further on, the note states that “the use of quads caused a tactical surprise that destabilized the adversary, who panicked and tried to organize an orderly withdrawal”. “The less experienced were in fact quickly disorganized and the leaders completely overwhelmed”, it is specified. The intelligence service document puts forward a “failure” demonstrators who, in his words, “folded”, “weakened and bewildered”towards the municipality of Melle.

Questioning of the gendarmes on the continuation of the mobilization

The intelligence note also highlights the follow-up by the gendarmes of the situation concerning the wounded: “The ‘medics’ then announced many injuries and that they had reached the limit of capacity”, can we read in this document. The intelligence service also insists on the morale of the demonstrators, which it describes as “psychologically particularly tested” due in particular to weather conditions and “water supply difficulties”but also the number of injured.

The gendarmes are therefore wondering about the follow-up that could be given to this mobilization, in particular during what they call “season 5”on April 22 and 23, with opposition to the A69 motorway project, which aims to create a bypass linking Castres, in the Tarn to the town of Verfeil, near Toulouse, in Haute-Garonne, while emphasizing that “the recorded failure could constitute the breeding ground for an even greater radicalization”.