More than 3,000 security forces were mobilized last Saturday to secure the site of the mega-basins in Sainte-Soline in Deux-Sèvres. 47 gendarmes were injured.
“At the time, we thought they were coming there to wage war.” Shields with nails, iron bars, Molotov cocktails, mortars, cobblestones, “in almost unlimited quantities”, Lieutenant Martin was on the front line, with his mobile squadron made up of about twenty men, last Saturday in Sainte-Soline , in Deux-Sèvres to secure the construction site of the mega-basins.
That day, the Aurillac Mobile Squadron he commands was briefed on its mission as people gathered despite the ban from the prefecture. “We are given our position. Our mission is to ban, we do not expect such an outpouring of violence”, comments on BFMTV the lieutenant of the gendarmerie.
“It was a real deluge of fire and stone for almost an hour,” he says.
“Very well equipped”
For several hours, demonstrators and security forces face each other. The gendarmes are deployed to prevent access to the area where the mega-basin which is “11 football pitches” is to be built. The demonstrators were then present in a peaceful manner. “They are the ones who came into contact, explains Lieutenant Martin. A good part surrounded us, a large black block broke away.”
“It started to move forward. We fired interdiction shots to tell the demonstrators not to move forward,” he continues.
Then a “group of very virulent demonstrators progressed little by little”. “The tear gas canisters to try to slow them down were not effective because they are very well equipped. The wind being against us, it created a mask between them and us. So they were able to progress and get to to vehicles”. A total of four police vehicles were set on fire.
“We are trying to regain ground, but we can’t see anything. It’s burning everywhere, there are molotov cocktails falling all the time,” he explains again.
The clashes will last an hour, “in feeling we had the impression that it lasted 3-4 hours”. Proof of the violence, the first charge ordered by Lieutenant Martin does not work.
“We take too many mortars, cobblestones, cocktails. We back off again, it catches fire everywhere”, explains the gendarme.
The use of “proportionate” force
The gendarme’s shoulder pad has melted, his gas mask cartridge is ripped in two, his helmet covered in impacts, his visor half burned. “It was continuous, it never stopped, we wondered how much ammunition they had, insists Lieutenant Martin. From memory, “the oldest gendarmes of the squadron have never experienced such a level of violence”.
“I remember saying to myself when we were in front of them ‘they want to kill us'”, he confides.
Would the presence of 3,000 gendarmes to secure a site not yet built have fueled this violence, as critics say? Was the law enforcement response disproportionate? “When you come with slingshots, shields with nails, iron bars … The use of force was proportionate,” slice Lieutenant Martin.
“There were prohibition shots and a crescendo use. When you come with weapons, you come to hurt, or even worse,” he concludes.
These clashes in Sainte-Soline are also marked by another controversy over a possible impediment by the gendarmes to the intervention of the emergency services for the wounded. “After the confrontation, I saw the military doctor go towards the demonstrators and get stoned when he was going to try to help them,” sweeps Lieutenant Martin before concluding: “I am committed to serving and protecting population”.
