Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne denounced Wednesday before the Senate “unacceptable and deeply shocking scenes” Saturday during the demonstration near a site of a disputed agricultural reservoir in Sainte-Soline in Deux-Sèvres. A prohibited demonstration, but having brought together several thousand people, near this site of mega-basins gave rise to violent clashes between radical militants and the police. 61 gendarmes were injured, 22 of them seriously, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
“If the majority of the demonstrators were peaceful, several hundred violent individuals attacked the gendarmes who were protecting the site. (…) These are unacceptable and deeply shocking scenes. (…) Justice is seized and I can assure you, there will be no impunity for these perpetrators of violence,” said the Prime Minister during questions to the government.
“No impunity for these perpetrators of violence”
“Justice is seized and I can assure you, there will be no impunity for these perpetrators of violence”, also declared Ms. Borne, who was questioned by the president of the group Les Indépendants-République et Territoires, Claude Malhuret. . Before the Senate, the head of government wanted “above all to pay tribute to our police forces. Every day, police and gendarmes protect us, they preserve republican order. No violence against them is acceptable and the government will always be on their side.
This project “has been the subject of long and in-depth consultations”. “Thanks to these discussions, the project has been greatly modified, I can testify to this as the former prefect of the Poitou-Charentes region”, developed Elisabeth Borne.
A project “approved almost unanimously by the communities”
“This project is part of the territorial project for water management which was approved in 2019 almost unanimously by the communities of course but also by the environmental protection associations”. It “will make it possible to reduce withdrawals from natural environments, it is a responsible project which links the realization of reserves to environmental commitments made by farmers”, she added. It is “also necessary to help these farmers cope with drought and better regulate water use. So, I say, it’s a good project”, which “could be the subject of appeals by the opponents” who “lost in court”, underlined the Prime Minister.
After these incidents, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin spoke of “ecoterrorism” by violent protesters. A term that Ms. Borne did not take up in the Senate, nor, “knowingly”, government spokesperson Olivier Véran on Wednesday at the exit of the Council of Ministers.