In Donges, on March 17th. LOIC VENANCE / AFP
According to AFP, this operation aimed to facilitate the unloading of a cargo of diesel, while the terminal has been occupied for a week.
The police intervened overnight from Monday to Tuesday to unblock the Donges oil terminal (Loire-Atlantique) which had been occupied for a week by strikers, noted an AFP photographer. According to a source from the CGT to AFP, the oil port was evacuated in less than 2 hours to facilitate the unloading of a cargo of diesel.
The mobile gendarmes started their intervention around 2 a.m., we learned from the same source. They secured the area at dawn, in particular by extinguishing fires lit by the demonstrators, saw an AFP photographer. Around 4:30 a.m., no more protesters were present on the site, according to the photographer.
A source close to the strikers contacted by AFP before the end of the intervention reported “clashes” in the night. According to this source, the police would havestarted to load“the demonstrators”as soon as they arrivearound 2:05 a.m. According to the photographer, a dozen law enforcement vans were visible on the site around 4:30 am.
Contacted by AFP, the prefecture’s on-call duty was unable to confirm whether an intervention by the police had taken place, or the presence of injured people. “We’re stuck next door, we can’t pass“, told AFP the source close to the strikers, who mentioned the establishment of “harrowsby the gendarmes. “We must have been 200-300 strikers. Donges has been blocked for a week“recalled this source. Among the demonstrators who occupied the site of the Donges refinery: refinery agents, dockers, or even employees of the Cordemais thermal power plant.