Gérald Darmanin suggests that the subsidies to the League of Human Rights could be called into question

The threat is thinly veiled. Hearing in the Senate on the demonstration against the “mega-basin” of Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres), the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, suggested that the subsidies granted to the League of Human Rights, a very critical association of the means used by the gendarmes against the demonstrators, could be called into question.

“I don’t know about the subsidy given by the state to the Human Rights League. But it deserves to be looked at in the context of the actions that have been carried out”said the Minister of the Interior.

. @LDH_Fr : “I do not know the subsidy given by the State, but it deserves to be looked at within the framework of the actions which could be carried out.” @GDarmanin pic.twitter.com/Ij28AAUzrN

— Public Senate (@publicsenat) April 5, 2023

Gérald Darmanin answered a question from François Bonhomme, senator Les Républicains du Tarn-et-Garonne. “The Human Rights League is financed by public funds, including from the State. So if you want to be consistent, Minister, you must stop financing associations which seriously challenge the State – they denounce a police state, systemic violence. We finance these associations which have nothing to do with the rule of law, whatever they say about it”estimated the chosen one.

The LDH says it defends “the freedom to demonstrate”

On Twitterthe League of Human Rights reacted quickly. “‘The actions that have been carried out’ by the LDH for more than 120 years are the defense of the rights and freedoms of all, whether you like it, in particular the defense of the freedom to demonstrate undermined by your policy maintaining order”she replied.

The rally on March 25 around the disputed basin of Sainte-Soline, which attracted between 6,000 and 30,000 people, gave rise to violent clashes between demonstrators and the police. Four investigations have been opened into the circumstances in which four demonstrators were seriously injured. The vital prognosis of one of them is still engaged.