Violent clashes caused, on Saturday, October 29, around sixty injured on the side of the gendarmes and around thirty on the side of the demonstrators, according to the latest reports, during a rally banned by the Deux-Sèvres prefecture against a "mega-basin" for agricultural irrigation .

"61 gendarmes were injured, including 22 seriously," tweeted Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin for whom "this figure shows that it was not a peaceful demonstration but a very violent gathering".

"I hope that all the republican political forces will condemn this violence", added the minister, who according to his entourage returned to Paris in the evening "to follow from Beauvau the evolution of the situation in Sainte-Soline".

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On the demonstrators' side, around thirty people were injured, ten of whom were taken care of by the firefighters and three hospitalized, according to the collective "Bassines Non merci", which brings together environmental associations, trade union organizations and anti-capitalist groups opposed to this "grabbing of the 'water' for the 'agro-industry'.

Tear gas grenades were thrown and elected officials sporting their tricolor scarf molested, in particular the environmentalist deputy of Vienna, Lisa Belluco, according to an AFP photographer.

The prefecture counts four wounded communicated by the emergency services.

Among the opponents affected, Julien Le Guet, one of the spokespersons for the collective, seen by AFP with his face bandaged and with a trickle of blood along his nose after a brief arrest.

The prefect Emmanuelle Dubée also reported on Saturday evening six arrests at the end of this rally which brought together 4,000 people according to her, 7,000 according to the organizations.

1,500 gendarmes mobilized 

Ms. Dubée denounced the presence of "400 black-block profiles and very violent activists", as well as "throwing molotov cocktails, mortar fire, powerful explosives, projectiles".

With an area of ​​several hectares to cover through cereal fields, the 1,500 mobilized gendarmes had difficulty containing the crowd, in which hundreds of masked or hooded activists rubbed shoulders with families and many retirees.

"Anti-bassine" activists, around fifty according to the prefecture, managed to force gates protecting the site and then briefly enter inside, before being repelled, noted an AFP journalist.

"They were all pushed back so the maneuver is a success," concluded the prefect, recalling that the ban on demonstrations was still valid until Monday.

After a tense face-to-face of about an hour at the edge of the reserve, the demonstrators turned around towards the field lent by a peasant so that they could set up camp there near this construction site, which had become the new epicenter of a conflict over the use of water which is becoming scarcer with global warming.

The Bassines Non Merci collective congratulated itself in a press release for having "succeeded in thwarting the dozen dams and entering the site" and affirming that it wanted to use this camp as a "support base" to "continue to stop the construction site".

Exceptional drought 

Sainte-Soline is the second of a project of 16 substitution reserves developed by a group of 400 farmers united in the Coop de l'eau, to "reduce water withdrawals by 70%", in this region still subject to irrigation restrictions after an unusual summer drought.

These reserves are open-air craters, covered with plastic sheeting and filled by pumping water from surface groundwater in winter.

They can store up to 650,000 m3 (260 Olympic swimming pools) of water to irrigate in the summer.

"It's October 29, it's dry everywhere, it's absurd to monopolize all the water available for a few corn farmers", denounced the MEP Yannick Jadot, present on the spot like other elected environmentalists, including MP Sandrine Rousseau.

La France insoumise also supported this gathering.

The Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, stressed on France inter that the "project had no negative consequences for the" water tables, according to a recent report.

According to this study by the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM), the project could, compared to the period 2000-2011, increase "by 5% to 6%" the flow of rivers in the summer, against a decrease 1% in winter, without taking into account the potential evaporation of future reserves, nor the threat of recurring droughts linked to global warming.

Christophe Béchu also recalled that the "plan signed by everyone four years ago" after a long consultation between farmers, elected officials, authorities and associations, conditioned access to water to changes in practices (reduction of pesticides , planting of hedges, conversion to agroecology).

But none of the ten farmers using the first deduction "has subscribed to a reduction in pesticides", according to Vincent Bretagnolle, member of the scientific and technical monitoring committee (CST) of the project, and since the signing, several associations have withdrawn from the protocol. .

With AFP

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