Nearly 30,000 demonstrators gathered in Deux-Sèvres to protest against the construction of an artificial water reserve. The rally was the scene of clashes.
The new rally against the “mega-basins”, scheduled for Friday March 24 to Sunday March 26, promised to be a show of force on the part of environmental activists. The mobilization was there: demonstrations on Saturday against the construction of a water reserve in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres) brought together, according to the organizers, nearly 30,000 participants.
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Several clashes erupted during the rally, injuring dozens of demonstrators and security forces. Franceinfo summarizes what to remember from this day of protests.
A project criticized by environmental associations
Five months after their last mobilization, the Bassines non merci collective, the environmental movement Les Uprisings of the Earth and the Confédération paysanne have undertaken to relaunch the protest against a controversial project to create a “water basin” in Deux-Sèvres.
Sainte-Soline, the place where the demonstrations converge, is indeed part of a set of 16 reservoirs, with a total capacity of around six million cubic meters, which are to come into being as part of a project carried out since 2018 by a cooperative of 450 farmers, and supported by the State. This installation aims to store water drawn from surface water tables in winter, in order to irrigate crops in summer when rainfall is scarce.
Opponents of the project, for their part, denounce a “grabbing” water by “agribusiness” unacceptable in the age of climate change. In particular, they are calling for a moratorium on their constructions to launch “a real territorial project” on the “water sharing”.
A prohibited event
This weekend’s demonstration had been banned by the Deux-Sèvres prefecture due to “a history of serious disturbances to public order observed during previous demonstrations resulting in violent acts against the police and acts of sabotage on agricultural installations”.
The Ministry of the Interior has decided to mobilize 3,200 gendarmes and police officers to oversee the rally, nearly double the numbers deployed during the demonstration last October. “We are in total excess, with the deployment of the Republican Guard, 8 helicopters, motorcycles and quads”stings Jean-Jacques Guillet, spokesperson for the Bassine collective no thank you.
A gathering punctuated by clashes
Violent clashes between protesters and law enforcement quickly erupted near the disputed Sainte-Soline water reserve on Saturday. The demonstrators used mortars and explosives against the police, the national gendarmerie said. Several police vehicles were set on fire. “No one should tolerate this. Full support for our law enforcement”reacted the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin on Twitter.
#SainteSoline Firing of mortars, throwing of Molotov cocktails and various projectiles on the #police. Gendarmerie operation in progress to repel the assaults of an extremely violent crowd. Avoid the area. pic.twitter.com/szA7Mqtp6k
– National Gendarmerie (@Gendarmerie) March 25, 2023
Demonstrators also attacked one of the valves of the future basin project. They managed to pierce the steel slightly using a grinder, noted a journalist from franceinfo.
In a press release published in the afternoonthe environmental movement Les Uprisings of the Earth blamed the police for delaying the treatment of injured protesters “by blocking the Samu in Sainte-Soline”. “The people who came to treat the wounded received grenades” from the police, says Jean-Jacques Guillet. In a point position carried out from the Ministry of the Interior at the end of the afternoon on Saturday, Gerald Darmanin returned this reproach to the demonstrators, who according to him would have hindered the work of the emergency services and the gendarmes who were seeking to evacuate the wounded.
According to a last count provided by the Niort prosecutor’s office, the emergency services took care of seven injured demonstrators, including three treated in absolute urgency and hospitalized; 28 gendarmes were injured, including two hospitalized in absolute emergency. Two journalists were hit.
Earlier in the day, the Minister of the Interior reported on a balance sheet “very heavy” : “24 gendarmes injured, 23 in relative emergency, 1 in absolute emergency. On the demonstrators’ side, 7 injured, including 1 in absolute emergency”. For their part, in a press release published at the end of the day on Telegram messaging, the organizers had deplored “no less than 200 injured”, of which “about forty people with deep wounds” caused by “disencirclement grenades and LBD fire”.
A political class divided on the condemnation of the violence
The opposition and the majority have displayed different positions on the violence observed during the demonstrations. “Enough of police violence in Sainte-Soline! Enough! Without the BRAV-M, without this circus, absolutely nothing would happen but a walk in the fields!“, reacted Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Twitter. On the same social network, Marine Tondelier, national secretary of EELV, wrote that “the police on quads [les] had targeted with grenades/tear gas”, while she and the elected officials present did not represent “no threat”.
On the contrary, the elected representatives of the majority are committed to condemning the violence perpetrated against the police. “It is in no way about demonstration or ecology. They are thugs, thugs who are there to “kill the cop”. “Total support for the FDO, police and gendarmes. We must all condemn this far-left violence.”, denounced Eric PoulliatRenaissance MP for the 6th constituency of Gironde.