(Melle) Some 5,000 opponents of the “mega-basins” are gathered at the “Water Village” in Deux-Sèvres, the epicentre of the fight against these contested irrigation reserves, including “10% black blocs” according to the authorities who fear violence during banned demonstrations this weekend.
Fifteen months after the clashes between radical demonstrators and police in Sainte-Soline in the department, more than 3,000 gendarmes are mobilized around Melle, the town which has been hosting this international militant gathering since Tuesday and until Sunday.
On Thursday, under a blazing sun, the participants, some wearing masks or hoods, went about their business under the tents of the camp hosting workshops, conferences and training sessions on the issue of water.
PHOTO PHILIPPE LOPEZ, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
At the “Water Village,” participants went about their business under the camp’s marquees.
“It’s a place for exchange, it gives a lot of energy. We have the impression that this fight is becoming more refined over time and is growing spectacularly,” says Victorin Vallier, 30, an aquatic environment technician in Auvergne and member of the Bassines Non Merci (BNM) collective – one of the organizers of the Village with the Soulèvements de la Terre and Extinction Rébellion movements, the Solidaires trade union and the anti-globalization association Attac.
According to the authorities, 450 people “known to the services for violent activism or with criminal records during demonstrations” are present at the camp, including 123 individuals “listed as S”.
The police say they seized 1,600 items of “equipment”, half of which were considered “weapons by destination” (axes, knives, crowbars, tools, etc.), as well as “protective” items (helmets, masks, goggles), during vehicle searches in Melle, but also sometimes very far from the scene.
PHOTO PHILIPPE LOPEZ, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The police say they seized 1,600 items of “equipment” during vehicle searches in Melle, but also sometimes very far from the scene.
“Mass disobedience”
Two undeclared demonstrations on the programme of the event were banned: Friday in Saint-Sauvant (Vienne) on the site of a future “basin” and Saturday in front of the agro-industrial terminal of the port of La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime).
The authorities are calling on protesters to “stay in the Water Village”. “I repeat this with gravity, it is responsible not to participate,” declared the prefect of Deux-Sèvres, Emmanuelle Dubée, on Thursday.
“We are claiming our right to oppose water grabbing projects,” respond the organizers, while the “basins” aim to store millions of cubic meters drawn from the water tables in winter in order to irrigate crops in summer.
PHOTO PHILIPPE LOPEZ, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
“If we come together and no one listens to us, what do we do?” asks Gabriele Latour, a young activist from the Bassines Non Merci collective.
The displayed “framework of action” of the demonstrations announces “forms of mass disobedience” intended to “concretely impact their targets”, with different “levels of engagement” in the marches.
“If we come together and no one listens to us, what do we do?” asks Gabriele Latour, a young BNM activist, “when there is no solution, what weight do we have, as citizens?”
These “occupations, blockades or disarmaments” of installations must target “basins” on Friday [ou leurs réseaux] which have just been built, under construction or in the planning stage”, then “major devices of the agro-industrial complex” on Saturday.
“Defend the farms”
The authorities’ security measures concern four departments potentially affected by these actions (Deux-Sèvres, Vienne, Charente-Maritime and Vendée).
In March 2023, violent clashes took place between radical protesters and gendarmes around the “basin” of Sainte-Soline, near Melle, which is due to be filled this winter. On Thursday, the site was very calm, monitored by dozens of gendarmes while camps were spotted nearby.
In Saint-Sauvant, agricultural work was underway near a cornfield where the next water reservoir is to be dug in the fall, the announced location of Friday’s demonstration. Here, “there’s nothing to break,” estimated the village grocer.
An agricultural union, the Rural Coordination, the majority in Vienne, has called for people to come and “defend the farms” in the area against “ecological groups”.
The organizers, for their part, assure that they do not want to “target farmers and their farms”, accusing the authorities of “stirring up fears and tensions” and describing the Rural Coordination as “apprentice militias”.
The prefect called on local residents and operators “to remain calm” and “if they are concerned about their property, not to try to intervene themselves”.
In Charente-Maritime, the prefecture has banned demonstrations in the “entire city” of La Rochelle on Saturday.