2023-11-19 18:14:00
Protests against the privatization of water sometimes led to violent clashes.
Photo: dpa/AFP/Pascal Lachenaud
In June, France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin issued a decree dissolving the environmental protection organization “Soulèvements de la Terre” (Uprisings of the Earth). Now the Council of State, France’s highest administrative court, has overturned the ban on the organization. According to the verdict, the environmentalists cannot be accused of “provocation or calls for violence against people.” The dissolution is not a necessary and proportionate measure.
In March, the organization suddenly became known nationally and internationally when a protest demonstration it organized against the construction of mega-water reservoirs for intensive agriculture in the small community of Sainte-Soline led to serious clashes with the police. 40 demonstrators and 47 police officers were injured at the time.
Demonstrators from a so-called black bloc are said to have sought confrontation with the police. The “Soulèvements de la Terre” association, as the organizer of the protest, had expressly called for a non-violent demonstration. Regardless of this, Interior Minister Darmanin subsequently described the group as “eco-terrorists.”
Nevertheless, the dissolution did not take place until June. The search for arguments and “evidence” probably took that long. But the judges found this weak and unconvincing. From their point of view, it was completely exaggerated that the minister referred to a “threat to public order” and the law on internal security in his decree.
The government has to accept further defeats in this context. In recent months, the judiciary appealed to by the environmentalists has canceled the building permits that had already been issued for the basin in Sainte-Soline and for more than a dozen other basins in the surrounding western French departments. According to the order, the building applications must now be thoroughly examined again for economic relevance and ecological consequences.
The farming interest groups that commissioned and financed these basins argue that only in winter, when there is sufficient groundwater, is some of it extracted, pumped up and stored in the basins. It can then be used for artificial irrigation in spring and summer when there is too little rain. This practice is becoming more and more widespread in France due to the increasing droughts. The farmers’ spokesmen and their lawyers claim that this is not harmful to the environment.
But the judges decided that 15 pools with a total capacity of three million cubic meters were “oversized” and “not suitable for adequately counteracting the consequences of climate change.” The dimensions were calculated based on the comparative figures for the years 2000 to 2010, when there were fewer dry periods than at present and correspondingly more groundwater could be withdrawn for artificial irrigation. Today, such amounts would be “irresponsible.”
“Soulèvements de la Terre” and the other associations that filed the lawsuits said they were satisfied with the verdicts. This would “halt the disinformation campaigns that have been promoting megabasins as a means of reducing water extraction for years,” they noted in a joint statement.
On the other hand, the prefecture of the Vienne department considered that the reasons given by the court raised questions. She announced that she would appeal the decision. The affected interest groups as clients of the basins also want to appeal. But this has no suspensive effect on the validity of the judgments. This means that no further construction can be carried out on the pools until the next round in court.
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#Water #shortage #French #environmentalists #ecoterrorists