Sandrine Rousseau defends the presence of elected officials at a prohibited demonstration “to protect the demonstrators”

“They are right to go there.” Guest of franceinfo Friday June 16, the deputy Europe Ecology – The Greens (EELV) Sandrine Rousseau defends the presence of elected officials at a demonstration against the construction site of the high-speed rail line Lyon-Turin, this weekend, banned by the prefecture .

These elected officials, including the EELV mayor of Grenoble, Éric Piolle, and the president of the La France insoumise (LFI) group in the Assembly, Mathilde Panot, will be able to “protect the demonstrators and pacify the situations on the spot”she says.

She will not participate in the demonstration

For Sandrine Rousseau, the threat comes from the demonstrators who “may want to break the camel’s back”. It also comes from law enforcement. It is therefore a question of “also put scarves between them and the demonstrators, so that the clashes are not direct”, says the elected Parisian. She will not participate:

I won’t be able to go because I already have commitments all weekend, but if I had been free, I would obviously have gone.

Sandrine Rousseau

at franceinfo

By the way, she brings her “support” to the Uprisings of the Earth, among the organizers of this demonstration. The government has indeed “the firm intention of being able to present the dissolution file to the Council of Ministers” of the movement, recalled its spokesperson, Olivier Véran, on Wednesday. He was reacting to an action by environmental activists around Nantes on Sunday, which resulted in damage. Again, the Earth Uprisings were among the organizers.

In front of the senators, Olivier Véran also attacked elected officials who participate in prohibited demonstrations, as was already the case on Sunday. For him, “an elected representative of the Republic, whatever his mandate, whatever his party, does not have to participate in a demonstration when it is prohibited by the prefecture, that is the basis”.

Opponents of the Lyon-Turin high-speed rail line construction site have lodged several appeals against the decree issued by the Savoy prefecture. It prohibits “any demonstration or gathering on the public highway” from Friday to Sunday in nine municipalities of Maurienne “in order to ensure the safety of people and property”. The administrative court of Grenoble must decide this Friday afternoon on these decrees.