The violent clashes which broke out on Saturday during the demonstration against the basins in Deux-Sèvres injured 24 gendarmes and seven demonstrators, according to the Minister of the Interior. “The toll is extremely heavy,” says Gérald Darmanin. A protester was “victim of head trauma”And “classified as an absolute emergency by the doctor of the gendarmerie”, indicates the Deux-Sèvres prefecture. A seriously injured policeman was airlifted.
Police vans on fire
According to the LFI deputy for Haute-Vienne Manon Meunier, interviewed on the spot by AFP, two wounded would have their vital prognosis engaged, information not confirmed by the authorities. “I saw at least 30 injured but there are more. Some had lost consciousness, others had their heads bleeding. Many injured in the feet and head”had indicated earlier Claire Auger, a teacher who came to their aid.
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“The Samu couldn’t pick them up. We just saw an ambulance. We asked the elected officials to do something. It was total panic, it lasted more than an hour before it started to break down. clear out”added this witness. “The Samu answered us that they had orders not to approach the site, that we had to evacuate the wounded ourselves to the village of Sainte-Soline where they would be taken care of”, added Marc Parenthoën, teacher-researcher. According to MP LFI, elected officials left on foot to look for cars to transport the wounded.
On images shot on the spot, at least two vans and a gendarmerie car are on fire, in the middle of a field, generating a plume of black smoke which rises into the sky. Thousands of people mobilized despite the ban on the gathering, to protest against the construction of a water reserve in this town, intended for agricultural irrigation. More than 3,000 police and gendarmes are present.
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Mortar fire on the gendarmes
In the morning, a long procession of at least 6,000 demonstrators marched according to the police. The organizers announce 30,000 participants The objective: “Approach and surround the basin to stop the construction site”, told AFP a member of the Uprisings of the Earth, an environmental movement. But as the site approached, clashes broke out, with projectiles thrown and mortars fired at the police. Explosions rang out.
The police and gendarmes responded with water cannons and throwing tear gas. The National Gendarmerie also evokes throwing Molotov cocktails, and describes the crowd as “extremely violent”.
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The Minister of the Interior reacted in the afternoon. “In Sainte-Soline, the ultra left and the far left are extremely violent against our gendarmes. Unspeakable, unbearable. No one should tolerate this. Full support for our police forces”,
Several injured among the demonstrators
We can see on a video of the gendarmes driving at high speed on quads on the fields, with what seems to be LBDs in their hands. 15 people have been arrested since yesterday, 12 of whom are still in custody.
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“Enough of police violence in Sainte-Soline! Enough!”,
wrote on Twitter the leader of rebellious France Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “Without the BRAV-Ms, without this circus, absolutely nothing would happen but a walk in the fields!”
Saturday morning on France Inter, the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau had launched a “message of responsibility and appeasement”. He assures that weapons were seized before the rally, such as “machetes and axes”.
The earth squared
54 mins
The basins, a construction that is debating
The Sainte-Soline basin is part of a set of 16 reservoirs, with a total capacity of six million cubic meters, programmed by a cooperative of 450 farmers with state support.
It aims to store water drawn from surface water tables in winter, in order to irrigate crops in summer when rainfall is scarce, according to a principle of “substitution”. Its supporters make it a condition for the survival of farms in the face of the threat of recurring droughts. Its cost of 70 million euros is 70% financed by public funds in exchange for the adoption of agroecological practices by the beneficiaries, an empty promise according to opponents who denounce a “grabbing” of water by “the agro-industry” and call for a moratorium on the project.
The 6:20 guest
9 mins
