In the aftermath of a demonstration and violent clashes with the police, a few hundred people were still present this Sunday evening near the construction site of a water reserve intended for agricultural irrigation in Deux-Sèvres. . They were still 2,000 in the morning.
40 people “file S for ecoterrorism” were among the demonstrators, indicates Gérald Darmanin, in a press briefing at 6:30 p.m. “I repeat our desire that no ZAD settles on the national territory, therefore more than a thousand gendarmes will remain on the spot, specifies the Minister of the Interior. A small part of the demonstrators remains on private land, so we cannot do anything, except if there are illegal constructions, we would then take the necessary action. »
Demonstrators repelled and beaten, Jadot’s car vandalized
EELV MP Lisa Belluco testified to an extremely violent face-to-face with the gendarmes. “I was pushed and hit by the police,” she said on BFMTV. Of the three processions of activists, the MP was part of the central procession made up of families with children and the elderly “couldn’t be more calm and peaceful”. The procession would have been “Hindered in its progress, very, very far from the basin and when there was no obvious intention of violence. It was at this point that the MP was “Forcibly pushed back by the police”, when she “did not force the passage”.
At the beginning of the evening, the EELV party published a press release to reaffirm the “non-violence” of the ecological fight, and in turn condemn “the acts of violence committed by demonstrators” against Yannick Jadot (whose car was vandalized) and Charles Fournier. “Nothing can justify insults or degradation. »
On Saturday, several thousand people (4,000 according to the authorities, 7,000 according to the organizers) gathered in Sainte-Soline, east of Niort, to protest against the construction of a “mega-basin”. This vast reserve, intended for irrigation, is denounced by its detractors as “water grabbing” by agro-industry, coupled with an ecological aberration at a time of global warming and repeated droughts.
A new action of “civil disobedience” announced
This demonstration, in which several elected environmentalists participated, including MEP Yannick Jadot, had been banned and turned into a confrontation with the 1,500 gendarmes mobilized to prevent the demonstrators from entering the site. After violent clashes, some succeeded briefly before being pushed back.
About sixty gendarmes according to the Ministry of the Interior, and about fifty demonstrators according to the collective “Bassines non merci”, were injured in this violence attributed by the prefecture to radical militants. The gendarmerie system was maintained on Sunday, while a new action of “civil disobedience” was announced for the afternoon by the anti-basin collective, which evokes 3,000 to 4,000 people still present.
The movement of opponents should be long-term, the private land they occupy, loaned by a farmer, being available until mid-May. The construction of a “watchtower” has already begun on the site.
The use of pesticides in question
“This will be our basis for the next actions against the site if it were to restart. ZAD or not ZAD, it will be in these terms, “said AFP Julien Le Guet, spokesperson for the collective who is calling for a moratorium from the government.
Sainte-Soline is the second of a project of 16 substitution reserves developed four years ago by a group of 400 farmers to reduce their water withdrawals during the summer, thanks to the pumping of surface water tables in winter. Access to this storage is conditional on the adoption of practices that are more respectful of the environment, but none of the beneficiaries of the first deduction has committed, for the time being, to reducing their use of pesticides.