The mobilization in Sainte-Soline quickly turned into a confrontation. While the authorities point the finger at the virulence of the “black blocks”, the League for Human Rights denounces the “criminal violence” of the police and the delay in the intervention of relief for the victims.
For almost a week, the controversy around the overflows in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres) has continued to swell. This rally, organized on Saturday March 25 to protest against a “basin” project, is not the first to have given rise to clashes between demonstrators and the police, but it appears to be one of the most virulent. .
Its organizers blame the “absolutely criminal violence” of the police, while the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, denounces the “inexcusable” brutality of the “far left”. Faced with “an unprecedented surge of violence”, the response was targeted and “proportionate”, say the authorities, with 5,015 tear gas canisters fired, 89 disencirclement grenades, 40 deflagrating devices and 81 LBD shots.
While the two camps return the responsibility, many injuries are to be deplored on all sides. And it is on the medical care of the demonstrators – particularly of Serge D., injured in the head and still in a coma – that the authorities are once again singled out, accused of having delayed the arrival of help at the scene of the conflict.
BFMTV.com looks back, minute by minute, on the course of this chaotic day, according to the versions issued by the authorities, the emergency services and the demonstrators.
A long procession of at least 6,000 people according to the prefecture and 30,000 according to the organizers, marches towards the controversial Deux-Sèvres site, blocked by more than 3,200 gendarmes and police officers.
From 1:00 p.m., violent clashes broke out between radical militants, who used “fireworks mortars, Roman candles and high-capacity Molotov cocktails”, and the police who, according to the gendarmerie, responded with tear gas and a water cannon in particular.
Mickaël B., 34, is the first militant seriously injured in the neck by a projectile. According Release, he is initially taken care of – a little before 1:30 p.m. – by a nurse who finds him “unconscious (…) in a critical state”. “I see a very large cervical hematoma and severe respiratory failure, the person is suffocating,” he says.
After fruitless requests to the Samu, Mickaël was finally extracted in a van belonging to the organizers of the demonstration and then taken to the hospital in Poitiers.
During the clashes, Serge D., 32, is in turn the victim of a head trauma. “We were on the left side of the basin (in the north, editor’s note), I saw him take a projectile at the level of the head”, tells a witness of the scene to Liberation. “He fell stiff on the ground. We carried him a little further, while the (grenades) continued to fall.”
At this time, the firefighters receive a call reporting a “man injured in the head and unconscious”, reports the prefecture of Deux-Sèvres in a report published on the website of the Ministry of the Interior.
“The firefighters go to the scene but do not find the person and leave”, recalls Farnam Faranpour, head of the Niort emergency department, interviewed by BFMTV.
“A minute later, we also receive the call for this injured person. The person on the phone tells us that the injured person is 100 meters from the burning gendarme vehicles”, he continues. “It’s complicated for us to intervene in this area.”
According to the prefecture of Deux-Sèvres, after the alert on the case of Serge D., the Samu warns, at 2:02 p.m., the director of medical aid and engages the Smur (Mobile emergency and resuscitation structures) of Ruffec, ” closest to the gathering place”.
• 2:22 p.m.: the ambulance arrives at the assembly point for the victims of Clussais
Help arrives at 2:22 p.m. at the victim assembly point, which is located in Clussais-la-Pommeraie, 9 km from the gathering. “Then she takes the road again at 2:46 p.m. towards the area where the patient was,” explains Farnam Faranpour, head of the Niort emergency department.
“The location of the traumatized was closest to the place where the hostilities had been particularly strong against the gendarmes”, explains for its part the prefecture in its report.
An assertion contradicted by the League of Human Rights (LDH) which asserts that Serge D. was in a “perfectly calm” zone, where nothing was “obstructing the intervention of the Samu”, and he should have been supported “without delay”.
• 2:50 p.m.: the League for Human Rights calls the Samu
While the ambulance is on the way, a doctor and a lawyer from the LDH – far from the scene of the clashes – are worried about the feedback from their observers present on the spot who claim that Serge D. is still not taken care of. by the rescuers.
The doctor and the LDH lawyer decide to call the emergency services themselves to request their intervention.
“- The doctor: Where are you, with the greatest absolute urgency?
– The Samu: We had a doctor on site and we explained the situation to him, it is that we will not send a helicopter or SMUR means on site, because we have orders not to send any by law enforcement.
– The doctor: So I am with observers from the League of Human Rights who say that their observers on the spot say that it has been calm for thirty minutes and that it is possible to intervene.
– The Samu: I agree with you, you are not the first to tell us. The problem is that it is at the discretion of the security forces as soon as we are under a command, which is not us (…) We do not have the authorization to send help (…) because it is considered dangerous.”
This call recorded by the LDH, then revealed by The worldis now at the heart of the controversy accusing the authorities of having delayed the arrival of help.
Even if the demonstrators on the spot assure that there were moments of calm which could have allowed the passage of help, “the presence of constituted black blocs, armed, was likely to relaunch the violence very quickly and in addition they were very mobile”, argues the prefect, Emmanuelle Dubée, on BFMTV.
• 2:52 p.m.: the emergency services arrive on site but do not find Serge D.
The head of the Niort emergency department explains that the ambulance finally arrives in Sainte-Soline at 2:52 p.m. At that time, the emergency services are looking for Serge D. but cannot find him.
“In the meantime, a doctor from the gendarmerie finds Serge D. and infuses him while waiting for the Smur to arrive. This doctor was then targeted, targeted by projectiles, when he left when he had just treated someone. one”, assures Farnam Faranpour.
• 3:15 p.m.: Serge D. is taken care of by Smur
After some difficulties, the Smur finds Serge D. at the place of the demonstration. “On the spot, he is put to sleep, intubated then taken to the assembly point for victims of Clussais”, details Farnam Faranpour.
“The emergency services then asked where Serge could be sent and the helicopter came to pick him up to take him to the Poitiers hospital” where he arrived at 4:34 p.m., he explains to BFMTV.
To respond to the controversy, Farnam Faranpour affirms that there was no obstruction to relief on the part of the authorities. The procedure to follow is to wait for a collegial decision from the emergency services, the prefecture and the police before launching the intervention of the emergency services, he develops.
Still, the families of the two seriously injured have filed a complaint for “attempted murder” and “obstructing rescue”. This Thursday, Serge and Mickaël are still in a coma and the vital prognosis of the first is still engaged.
