Biarritz (AFP)

Stalling of President Macron's portrait, Oxfam's "firefighting firefighters" or police's "barbecue of anger": Ecological or social discontents crystallized Friday in a multitude of symbolic and visual actions, competing to draw the attention of numerous media present in Biarritz for the G7.

The organizations involved in the "counter-summit" have been the most active, like ANV-COP21 and its Basque counterpart Bizi !, whose activists have won the town hall of Irissary (40 km from Biarritz) ) the presidential portrait, a few hundred meters from a gendarmerie.

The NGO says it is the 128th portrait of Emmanuel Macron stolen by its activists this year, to denounce the "beautiful speeches" of the president on the climate emergency, never followed "concrete actions" according to them.

ANV-COP21 has also planned a "march of portraits" of Emmanuel Macron Sunday in Bayonne, with some of his images unhooked throughout France and packaged.

In the neighboring department of the Landes, dozens of activists have blocked for an hour a plant Monsanto, giant of chemistry bought by the German Bayer, at the initiative of ATTAC, Friends of the Earth, the Confederation of Peasant and its Basque branch ELB, from Bizi! and the Basque LAB syndicate.

They unfurled banners "your profits = our cancers" and a truck dumped dirt in front of the factory entrance, in Peyrehorade, to "denounce the impunity enjoyed by multinationals and demand a plan for the exit of pesticides ".

- "Staging + way potiche +" -

Oxfam has organized an appointment for "firefighters firefighters" in Biarritz itself, but outside the "protection zones" of the city center.

Seven extras each carrying a big papier mache head like a G7 leader tried to extinguish the "fire of inequality". The fight against inequality is the theme of the summit, with (fake) flamethrowers.

Like other NGOs, Oxfam boycotted Friday an appointment at the Elysee between representatives of civil society and Mr. Macron.

"For months, the discussion with the French presidency has been difficult," said Cécile Duflot, Executive Director of Oxfam France. Emmanuel Macron "canceled three meetings, the last one at the last minute.Then the idea of ​​crowning this very difficult discussion with a staging + way potiche + NGOs at the Elysee, it was still a little clumsy, scornful ".

The NGO ONE wanted to draw attention to the fight "against the first of the inequalities, that between women and men" by making, in the wet sand of a beach of Biarritz at low tide, XXL drawings of faces of Trump, Merkel, Macron and others, under the intrigued eye of surfers and tourists.

At the end of the day, a few hours before the summit kicked off, police unions invited the media to an "barbecue of anger" near Biarritz to denounce the exhaustion of the ranks and the accumulation of hours. additional.

© 2019 AFP