“There will be no peace without withdrawal [de la réforme des retraites] and when I say that it’s not a threat, it’s the facts. Nine out of ten French people are opposed to it”, indicates Monday April 3 on franceinfo Marine Tondelier, national secretary of EELV. With the first secretary of the PS, she will be received Tuesday at Matignon by Elisabeth Borne. They asked to dedicate this meeting to “the crisis that the country is going through”. Marine Tondelier and Olivier Faure will be received at Matignon as party leaders, the leaders of the parliamentary groups having declined the initial invitation. In addition, Marine Tondelier denounces the doctrine of maintaining order during demonstrations. “There will end up being a death. There is a good chance that he is an environmentalist. I think we have to wake up before that happens”.
franceinfo. What are you going to say tomorrow Tuesday to Elisabeth Borne when you are received with Olivier Faure? Are you still demanding a withdrawal from the pension reform?
Marine Tondelier. There will be no peace without withdrawal and when I say that it is not a threat, it is the facts. 9 out of ten French people are against it. There are a lot of political parties that are opposed to it. All the unions in the country are against it. So at some point the government is at an impasse and they can look all they want to move on and move on, we won’t move on. France is not ready for it, the unions are not ready for it, Europe-Ecologie the Greens even less. I think it would be to his credit to act before the decision of the Constitutional Council [le 14 avril]. If it still does not, there will be the referendum. The time to collect the necessary 4 million signatures takes months. I don’t see how this government will go on for months as if nothing had happened while calmly trying to move on.
Regarding the maintenance of order and the climate of violence that you mention, what are you waiting for? An apology from the government?
Already considered because I have always condemned violence in demonstrations, the Greens have been doing it for forty years. On the other hand, I have heard the government very little worry about the two people who are between life and death after the demonstration in Sainte-Soline and apologize for the slippages of certain police officers. There is a policing problem. There are eight demonstrations which went extremely well and all of a sudden, things changed because there was 49.3, when the President of the Republic, in a failed exercise, wanted to do an interview which was full of cynicism and contempt and it set the country ablaze. There was a lot of repression. Many people have been victims of arbitrary arrests, sexual assaults by police officers who are not representative of all the police, but we have to talk about it.
Regarding Sainte-Soline, what do you think of the deployment of the police?
In Sainte-Soline, five million euros had been spent to protect a hole. Meanwhile, environmentalists are under threat across the country. Morgan Large, an agribusiness journalist, was the victim of an attempted murder. For the second time in two years, his car was sabotaged. Paul François, who had won his case against Monsanto, was the victim of an extremely violent attack. And they are not protected. It’s a real problem that I want to discuss with Elisabeth Borne because it’s going to end badly. Eventually there will be a death. Chances are he’s an environmentalist. I think we need to wake up before that happens.
Would you say that with this reform, democratic life takes a hit?
I am still very shocked by the front page of the Sunday newspaper this weekend with a Minister of the Interior who threatens everyone, speaks of intellectual terrorism. But where are we? We are France in 2023. I still can’t believe it. What is happening is extremely serious. He explained that all the security forces that had been sent to Sainte-Soline had to prevent the installation of a ZAD. But there was never any question of it, neither by the organizers nor by the demonstrators. A week later, he is still multiplying the lies and inventing risks that do not exist to justify a policing doctrine that was put in place that day. This is not acceptable and it has been condemned by everyone. When excess comes from a Minister of the Interior, it is a problem for the rule of law. I don’t think Elisabeth Borne can be silent on this much longer, she’s going to be forced to react because what happened is far too serious.