The day after a demonstration against a water reserve intended for agricultural irrigation in Deux-Sèvres and violent clashes with the police, Sandrine Rousseau was this Sunday the guest of BFM Politique in partnership with Le Parisian and Today in France. While the rally was banned, the Green MP confirmed that she had participated. “I was present because it is a serious project”, she insisted, stressing that “in these basins the water evaporates, it no longer goes into the groundwater”.
61 security forces were injured on Saturday, including 22 seriously, according to the Ministry of the Interior. “There were injured gendarmes, obviously I do not condone, I even support them”, assured Sandrine Rousseau, saying that she was in favor of “disobedience without violence”. But, while emphasizing that there had “also been injured demonstrators”. The elected official wondered about the number of gendarmes. “Why send 1,700 gendarmes just for an environmental demonstration asking just that water be shared? she asked.
VIDEO. Project of “mega basins”: 4000 opponents in Deux-Sèvres
According to her, Sainte-Soline “will become a ZAD”. As the broadcast unfolded, around 2,000 people, according to the authorities, were still present this Sunday near the construction site of the water reserve. “It is good that there are activists occupying these lands to show that these projects are sending us into the wall. They defend the idea that we can no longer continue with this liberal capitalist system,” insisted Sandrine Rousseau.
“The suffragettes had slashed Velazquez’s Venus”
More generally, the former candidate for the environmentalist primary has not dissociated herself from activists who target works of art to warn of global warming. “The suffragettes had slashed the Venus of Vélasquez”, she insisted on recalling (in 1914 in London to demand the right to vote for women). “There, the works of art are protected,” said Sandrine Rousseau. The planet is a precious asset for humanity. These young people demonstrated every Friday, they tried to speak out… There they are trying other actions. The question they ask and I ask is how do we become aware of the situation? »
The member explained that she “does not encourage them to do it, but now that they are doing it, you have to wonder. (….) How do we get people to react? »