“There will be no ZAD in Sainte-Soline.” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin denounced the clashes this Saturday on the sidelines of a demonstration against the Saint-Soline mega-basins, in Deux-Sèvres. During a press conference, he criticized the actions “of the ultra-left and the extreme left”, “who attacked the gendarmes in an extremely violent way”.
“It is not the forces of disorder that are going to win and it is not the extreme left that is going to win in the French Republic,” he added, denouncing an “absolutely unforgivable unleashing of violence”, attributing it “to the black blocs, to the people of the extreme left, to the people of the ultra-left”.
Statements supported by the Elysee, which condemned “uninhibited violence on all issues.” “Nothing justifies it,” an Élysée adviser told BFMTV, adding that it condemns “all those who justify it from near or far.”
Seriously injured police officers and protesters
In the autumn, after the first major demonstration on the same site, Gérald Darmanin had already used highly offensive rhetoric against the protesters, speaking of “eco-terrorism”.
“In this demonstration, some forty people from the ultra-left S have been seen with operational methods that are, I am not afraid to say, ‘eco-terrorism'”, he had declared.
Starting at 1:00 p.m., violent clashes broke out this Saturday between radical activists who used “pyrotechnic mortars, Roman candles and large Molotov cocktails” against the police, according to the gendarmerie, which responded with tear gas and a water cannon in particular.
The police used more than 4,000 grenades -tear gas and de-encirclement-, stressed Gérald Darmanin.
A total of 24 mobile gendarmes were injured, including one in an absolute emergency, the Interior Minister said. On the side of the protesters, there are dozens of injured, including one also in an absolute emergency. The two seriously injured were airlifted to hospital.
Source: BFM TV
