BFMTV has obtained images, filmed from a gendarmerie truck, which bear witness to the violence of the clashes between demonstrators and the police on Saturday in Sainte-Soline.
Throwing projectiles, explosions… The day after the clashes between demonstrators and the police on the sidelines of a mobilization against the mega-basins of Sainte-Soline, in Deux-Sèvres, BFMTV obtained images from the national gendarmerie which bear witness to the violence of the clashes.
Filmed from a gendarmerie truck, they show the vehicle wiping out numerous projectiles, which are difficult to distinguish.
The report also shows the violence of the clashes: the organizers, who denounce “staggering police violence of brutality”, report some 200 wounded within their ranks. The authorities, they report 28 injured gendarmes, including two in “absolute emergency”; seven demonstrators injured, including three in “absolute emergency” and two journalists.
No arrest
“Four gendarmerie vehicles were set on fire,” said the authorities and “no arrests” could be made during the demonstration, “given the extreme violence of the clashes”.
In total, “62 knives, 67 petanque balls, seven fireworks, six cans of gasoline, 12 stones and cinder blocks, 13 axes/machetes, five truncheons or baseball bats, 20 aerosols/gas canisters, 69 protective equipment and 95 various tools were seized or voluntarily handed over during these preventive checks.
At least 6,000 people according to the prefecture, up to 30,000 according to the organizers converged on this basin under construction, to “stop” the construction of this open-air reservoir, intended for agricultural irrigation, disputed for a long time. More than 300 law enforcement personnel were deployed to defend the site.
The authorities and the organizers blame each other for the clashes, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, denouncing the “inexcusable” violence of the “far left”, while the organizers blamed “absolutely criminal violence” law enforcement.
“We have witnessed scenes of war” which illustrate “a violent drift of the state”, launched during a press conference the MEP EELV Benoît Biteau, the day after this demonstration.
The police force remains in place this Sunday, but no new demonstrations are planned.
