Pierre de Vilno and Juliette Moreau Alvarez
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9:10 p.m., October 30, 2022
Invited to Europe 1 Soir Week-End, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Marc Fesneau reacted to the action of the demonstrators on the construction site of a “mega-basin” in Deux-Sèvres. The mobilization continues in Sainte-Soline, where 2,000 demonstrators remain in place and have set up a base. Facing them, another 1,700 police and gendarmes mobilized, at the request of Gérald Darmanin who wants “no ZAD to settle”. For Marc Fesneau, activists must “take their responsibilities”.
“We are not in China, we are not in Russia”
Sunday, some criticized the fact that the demonstrators were able to settle without the police and gendarmes intervening, while the demonstration was prohibited. If Marc Fesneau considers that the actions of the demonstrators are contrary to democracy, he defended a mobilization of the police on the site which was done “within the framework of the law and within the republican framework”: “We is not in a totalitarian state. We are not in China and we are not in Russia. In our country, there are rules of law that apply and that is the strength of a democracy. “
The police have “avoided the worst” according to the minister. “They made arrests, prevented a number of people from coming with vehicles and seized weapons,” recalls the minister. “Force must remain within the law and that’s what the gendarmes do. It’s also the strength of democracy to do that.” The truth of a democracy, “is to respect the law and to have a proportionate use of force”, he insists, thus explaining why the forces of order did not dislodge the occupants.
Activists who “sought to hurt”
At the microphone of Pierre de Vilno, Marc Fesneau also condemned the actions of the demonstrators. “What world do we live in if, as soon as we disagree with something, even if the project is legal, we can destroy it?” If the gendarmes intervened, they “respected the law”, explains the minister who considers that the militants have chosen violence, anti-democratic violence.
According to Marc Fesneau, environmental activists “sought to hurt”. On the horizon of a possible new ZAD, the minister condemns the installation of these demonstrators, and insists that the objective of the government and the police and “not to let this kind of device settle” sustainably.