Protesters and police were involved in violent clashes this Saturday over a disputed water reservoir under construction in Sainte-Soline, west-central France, where thousands of people have mobilized despite the ban on gatherings.
The French authorities mobilized 3200 security officers to monitor the unauthorized demonstration against a project of basins – water resources destined for agriculture – for fear of violence in a flammable context due to the tension caused by the new legislation on the retirement age.
A long demonstration – consisting of at least 6,000 people, according to the local government, about 25,000 according to the organizers – brought together members of environmental associations and trade unions.
“The goal is to surround the basin, to stop the work,” a member of the environmental organization Revoltas da Terra admitted at the start of the demonstration, which the organizers said was peaceful.
However, violent clashes broke out soon after, with radical activists using firecrackers against police officers.
For about an hour, the area surrounding the basin became a scene of violent conflict, with many explosions, which were watched from a distance by most of the demonstrators who remained peaceful.
Several police vehicles were set on fire until the attackers withdrew and the rally returned relatively peacefully.
Authorities reported injuries to several police officers, who were transported to area hospitals.
“In Sainte-Soline, the ultra-left and the far-left are extremely violent against our agents,” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said in a post on the social network Twitter in response to the incidents.
During the demonstration, dangerous objects and weapons – petanque balls, incendiary products, knives and axes – were seized and 11 people were arrested.
In the project that was the subject of this demonstration, 16 reservoirs, with a total capacity of about six million cubic meters, will be built, mainly in Deux-Sèvres, as part of a project led by a cooperative of 450 farmers with the support of the state.
The aim is to store the water in the open air, after it has been collected from surface aquifers in winter, to irrigate crops in summer when rainfall is low.
Opponents of the initiative denounce the appropriation of water by the agricultural industry in times of climate change.
France has been experiencing a huge mobilization against the social security reform for several weeks, the adoption of which without a vote in the National Assembly led to a succession of violent demonstrations in many cities of France.
Source: DN
