2023-08-11 16:33:00
A procedure for dissolving the collective had been launched by the government. In response, Les Uprisings of the Earth seized the Council of State at the end of July.
By LL with AFP The Council of State announced on Friday suspending in summary proceedings the dissolution of the collective of ecologists Les Uprisings of the Earth. © ALAIN PITTON / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP Published on 08/11/2023 at 14:48 – Modified on 08/11/2023 at 16:33
A first victory for the environmental movement. The Council of State decided on Friday to suspend the dissolution of the Uprisings of the Earth, which had been pronounced on June 21 by the government.
The Council of State considered that the government has not provided proof that the environmental collective endorses “violent acts towards people”. “The judges in summary proceedings consider that there is a serious doubt as to the qualification of provocation to violent acts against persons and property retained by the decree of dissolution”, indicates the high administrative court.
The Greens and LFI welcome the decision of the Council of State
“Justice has played its role as a bulwark” against a government that wanted to “ban a group that bothers it politically”, said the head of Europe Ecology-The Greens (EE-LV), Marine Tondelier.
“It is a government which is condemned by the same French courts for “climate inaction”, which fails to tackle the problem and which, to create a kind of diversion […]prefers to attack the messenger,” she told AFP, judging that there was no “sufficient legal and factual evidence” against this environmentalist collective.
“Extraordinary news! Well done @lessoulevements! Shame on the government, ”added another figure from Europe Ecology-The Greens, Sandrine Rousseau, on the X network (ex-Twitter). “A fair, important decision […] a terrible disavowal for the government and Darmanin ”, also asserts the ecologist deputy Julien Bayou.
READ ALSOSupport for the Earth Uprisings: “We are not eco-terrorists! »
For the coordinator of La France insoumise (LFI), Manuel Bompard, “the Council of State says stop the authoritarian drift of power”. “Macronism is outlawed. A new disavowal for #Darmanin and #Macron”, he launched on X.
“You don’t dissolve an uprising! Adds LFI MEP Manon Aubry, who points to a “scathing defeat for Darmanin and macronie who wanted to attack freedom of association”.
For the former presidential candidate and historical figure of the Insoumis, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, with this decision, “the legitimacy of civic disobedience is gaining ground”.
A long legal battle
The Council of State had been seized at the end of July according to an emergency procedure called “referred-suspension” by the Uprisings of the Earth. Several associations and parties (including La France insoumise, EELV, Agir pour l’environnement, etc.) as well as several thousand individuals joined in the action of the Earth Uprisings.
This was aimed at the decree of dissolution issued on June 21 by the government, which accuses the collective of “calling” for violence and “participating” in it. The interim decision is only the “first round of a very long legal battle”, recalled Les Uprisings of the Earth on Tuesday, before the interim hearing. The Council of State has yet to rule on the merits of the case.
During Tuesday’s hearing where the two parties had presented their arguments, the judges of the Council of State had indicated in the preamble that, whatever their decision on the interim suspension, this “will not predict” which one will be rendered on the bottom.
“Neither the documents in the file nor the exchanges during the hearing allow us to consider that the collective endorses in any way violent acts towards people”, indicates Friday the Council of State in the press release accompanying its decision.
The judges also consider that “the actions promoted by Les Uprisings of the Earth having led to attacks on property, which are part of the positions taken by this collective in favor of initiatives of civil disobedience”, were ” in limited numbers”.READ ALSOCivitas, Uprisings of the Earth…: the delicate weapon of dissolution
The government announced its intention to dissolve this movement on March 28, a few days after violent clashes between gendarmes and opponents of the construction of water reservoirs in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres).
In his decree, he affirms that “this group incites the commission of sabotage and material damage, including by violence”.
The Uprisings of the Earth judge, them, that this dissolution is “liberticidal, because prejudicial to the freedom of expression” and “to the freedom of association”. They also ensure that the facts of which they are accused are “ineffective”, “materially inaccurate” or are not “attributable to them”.
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