This Tuesday, on RMC-BFMTV, the president of the La France insoumise group in the National Assembly, Mathilde Panot, said that she “regrets” having announced, by mistake, the death of a protester from Sainte-Soline. The latter was seriously injured on Saturday in Deux-Sèvres, where a demonstration against a “mega-basin” took place.
“Of course I regret it. I think it would be good, also, not even to say it in this interview,” said Mathilde Panot.
“When I arrived at the picket to blockade the largest incinerator in Europe, it was information that they gave me and about which they saw me again right after,” he says.
“I immediately went to see the journalists and told them: ‘drop everything, the information is not confirmed,'” adds the head of LFI deputies.
An announcement on the microphone.
This version advanced to the air by Mathilde Panot does not correspond to the information collected by the BFMTV teams. One of our teams was present at the Ivry-sur-Seine incinerator when Mathilde Panot made this statement in front of several journalists. At our microphone, the president of the LFI group in the Assembly effectively announced the death of the protester who until then had been described as “between life and death” during an interview recorded to be broadcast shortly after.
Off-camera, he asked the BFMTV reporter on the scene not to publish this information, arguing that the victim’s family did not wish to communicate about it, but without questioning the substance of his claim.
Therefore, BFMTV requested that this information be confirmed. To understand where the news came from, our political service contacted the press service of the LFI group in the National Assembly. The latter told us that he had “contradictory information” about these events and urged us to be cautious.
The vital prognosis of the protester remains compromised
For its part, the police-justice service contacted a judicial source. The Niort public prosecutor’s office announced on Sunday that it had opened an investigation “to determine the exact nature” of the serious injuries of three protesters in Sainte-Soline and “the circumstances in which” these people were injured.
The Police-Justice Service learned this Monday morning, from a source close to the investigation, that the vital prognosis of the protester announced dead by Mathilde Panot was still compromised. This 32-year-old man suffers a head injury and is in a coma after being hit by a projectile, the nature and origin of which is still unknown, according to the same source. Therefore, BFMTV decided not to broadcast the excerpt recorded a little earlier with the deputy.
Our police and justice department also tried several times to contact Mathilde Panot on Monday, without success.
Source: BFM TV
