A 30-year-old man is still between life and death after violent clashes between police and protesters on Saturday. Sunday evening, some of the opponents of artificial water reserves met in a village in Deux-Sèvres to discuss the consequences of the movement.
Behind the town hall, in the village hall of Melle (Deux-Sèvres), about fifteen kilometers from Sainte-Soline, hundreds of people are taking part in a public meeting on Sunday March 26. “Attacking the security forces who are protecting a place frontally, is this the right tactic given the number of wounded?”, asks a participant at the microphone.
>> “Mega-basins”: in Sainte-Soline, despite the violent clashes, the demonstrators want to “continue to mobilize”
Hands rise and wave in silent applause. A 30-year-old man is still between life and death after violent clashes on Saturday between police and protesters who were taking part in a rally against a proposed artificial water reserve. Two gendarmes were also seriously injured. A total of 47 soldiers and seven demonstrators were taken care of by the emergency services. For their part, the organizers of the demonstration report a much heavier toll: 200 demonstrators injured, including 40 seriously.
“We will have to request the modes of action”
In an adjoining room of the Melle cinema, Nicolas Girod, spokesperson for the peasant confederation, is on the verge of tears: “Of course we will have to question our modes of demonstration, our modes of action. heavily armed order”.
“We will take our part. But I also question the management of this demonstration. It was crazy what, it was weapons of war against demonstrators who, for an ultra majority, were there without violence.
Nicolas Girod, spokesperson for the Confédération paysanneat franceinfo
Like him, opponents, elected politicians and trade unions strongly criticize the policing strategy put in place on Saturday. The gendarmes had to deal with violent groups. So what to do? Do not stop, advocates Basile of the collective Les Uprisings of the Earth, and multiply the modes of action: “We are certain that they will not be able to protect the sixteen construction sites to come. There are only two today, one (basin) built in Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon, one in Sainte-Soline” .
“We are certain that they will not be able, every three months, every four months, to deploy such a device and that there will be more and more of us to come each time”.
Basile, member of the Uprisings of the Earth collectiveat franceinfo
“And finally, we have the certainty, pursues Basilthat all the networks that supply and serve these basins are so wide and large and spread over the entire territory that they will not be able to defend them all 24 hours a day.
Several investigations opened
On Saturday during the clashes, about fifteen demonstrators attacked, for example, a valve of the future Sainte-Soline water reservoir intended for the irrigation of agricultural land and sawed it in part with the help of a grinder. .
No arrests were made this weekend. The Niort prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the circumstances in which three demonstrators were seriously injured, including the 30-year-old in a life-threatening emergency. Other investigations have been opened in particular for “organization of prohibited demonstration”, “violence on soldiers” and “destruction of property”.
