2024-07-24 09:26:10
Protesters against the construction of irrigation basins in France have staged an unannounced protest in the port of La Rochelle in the west of the country, blocking several facilities. The organizers of the protest, the Bassines Non Merci (“Pools – no, thank you!”) collective, wrote about this on X (formerly Twitter), Day.Az reports.
Earlier, city authorities banned the protest, but about 200 farmers, trade unionists and environmental activists were able to drive into the port area on tractors and blockade several facilities, including the warehouses of the agro-industrial company Soufflet. “Soufflet, like others, speculates in intensive grain crops at the expense of land, water and people, and destroys farmers’ incomes to increase their own,” the organizers of the protest claim.
Police and gendarmes who arrived at the scene set up a security perimeter around the port. According to the newspaper Sud Ouest, all people arriving at the port are being carefully searched. City authorities have begun removing fences and bicycle parking near the port, and merchants have covered their shop windows with plywood shields, fearing unrest.
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