2023-08-26 08:36:58
Activists of the “water convoy” in front of the Loire-Bretagne Water Agency, in Orléans, on August 25, 2023. GUILLAUME SOUVANT / AFP
We won’t dislodge them “only by force”, did they promise. The activists of the “water convoy”, who set up camp on Thursday in front of the headquarters of the Loire-Bretagne Water Agency in Orléans, announced Friday evening their intention to remain on site until obtaining a moratorium on the bedpan projects they contest.
A delegation of a dozen members, received at 3:30 p.m. by Sophie Brocas, prefect of the Centre-Val de Loire region and basin coordinator, declared that she intended to stay in the building until the situation was resolved. .
This occupation, both of the agency and of the adjacent street, in no way affects the program for Saturday’s protest day in Paris, the organizers assured. If most of the members of the “water convoy” were still present on Friday evening, some of them had taken the road towards Paris.
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The anger of the members of the “water convoy” crystallized on Friday at the Priaires retaining site (Deux-Sèvres). According to the organizers, grids have been installed in recent days on this site, which announces, according to them, the imminent start of the work.
“The delegation stays inside and will only come out by force. We want a moratorium on mega ponds. A moratorium means no continuation of work, no start of work, but grids have been installed on the Priaires site”explained Basile Dutertre, spokesperson for the Uprisings of the Earth, during a press briefing at 7 p.m. “The state has only two alternatives. Either he applies the moratorium, or he chooses political violence, taking us out by force”he added.
“A real dialogue”
A few minutes later, Julien Le Guet, leader of the Bassines non merci collective, left the headquarters of the Water Agency to take stock of the discussions. “We will stay as long as necessary. If we have to get out, it will be manu militari. The prefect offers us “no digger before September 4-5”. It’s provocation “he declaimed from the gates of the building, while the delegation was supplied with food by other activists.
At the start of the afternoon, the Confédération paysanne had demanded “a real dialogue” with the Loire-Bretagne Water Agency. “This dialogue (…) goes through a condition: the immediate stoppage of the works in progress and especially the opening of any new basin works »said Laurence Marandola, national spokesperson for the Confédération paysanne.
For her part, Ms. Brocas regretted the position of the delegation present at the agency, however refusing the use of force to force her to leave the premises. “We talked for more than five hours (…). We made overtures to maintain the dialogue because the republic is about dialogue, not the ultimatum. We offered to go and talk to the project leaders” basins already financed, as in Priaires, explained the prefect during a press conference on Friday evening. “It’s a republican gesture, they find it insufficient. I regret this end of discussion”she added.
Friday evening, several dozen tents installed the day before were still present in front of the agency’s headquarters, located about ten kilometers from the center of Orléans. About eight hundred people took part in the mobilization day, according to the organizers, three hundred according to the prefecture. Leaving Lezay (Deux-Sèvres) on August 18, the procession reached its final destination on Thursday evening after crossing Deux-Sèvres, Vienne, Indre-et-Loire, Loir-et-Cher and Loiret to denounce “water grabbing” and its public funding.
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