“The message is not to mingle with people” who come “to break the cop”, says Christophe Béchu

While a new demonstration against the “basins” is planned for Saturday March 25 in Deux-Sèvres, the Minister for Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, says he fears on franceinfo “a form of reissue” violence that occurred last fall. Clashes between the police and demonstrators marred a demonstration on October 29 in Sainte-Soline, near the construction site of a water reserve.

>>> “The police will be overwhelmed”: in Deux-Sèvres, the demonstrators against the “mega-basins” want to put the pressure back on

“The message is not to mingle with people who do not come to contest projects but to break the cop, to break the police, to question the system”says Christophe Béchu.“It’s more than 1,000 thugs that we expect and that once again explains the intensity of the deployment.”, assures the minister. A contingent of 3,200 police and gendarmes is deployed this Saturday without Deux-Sèvres where between 15,000 and 30,000 demonstrators are expected.

“We can oppose projects, we cannot behave in this way”.

Christophe Bechu

at franceinfo

The Minister for the Ecological Transition ensures that “The basin is not the solution to climate change” but that “this is not a project to fill the jacuzzi of farmers”. For Christophe Béchu, “it is a project made to ensure agricultural production to feed us”.

Finally, the Minister recalls that in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres) where the new demonstration is to take place this Saturday, “the level of the groundwater will determine whether or not the authorization to take”. “It’s planned in the project, he assures. If the tablecloths are not filled, there will be no authorization to fill the basin.”