One of the protesters injured on Saturday 25 March during the demonstration against the "megabasins" project in Sainte-Soline, in the centre-west of France, is between life and death. The prosecutor's office of Niort confirmed Sunday that his vital prognosis was engaged.
On Saturday, 6,000 to 30,000 people, depending on the sources (authorities or organizers), had converged on the basin under construction in order to "stop" the construction of these water tanks for agriculture before violent clashes broke out between some of the demonstrators and the police.
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According to a new assessment established Sunday by the prosecutor's office at 13 p.m. local time (11 am GMT) with emergency services and hospitals, seven protesters were taken care of by the emergency services, including three in absolute emergency: a 30-year-old man with a head trauma, "whose vital prognosis remains engaged at this stage", a 19-year-old woman with facial trauma and a 27-year-old man with a fractured foot.
A "specific" investigation has been opened to determine the nature and circumstances of these injuries, prosecutor Julien Wattebled said in a statement. For the other injured, the investigations will be carried out as part of judicial proceedings opened on Saturday.
In addition, 29 gendarmes were injured, including two placed in absolute emergency without their prognosis being engaged, one hit in the groin, the other with respiratory trauma, according to the prosecutor's office.
200 protesters injured according to organizers
The organizers of the demonstration – the collective of associations Bassines non merci, the environmental movement Soulèvements de la terre and the agricultural union close to the left Confédération paysanne – had claimed since Saturday that one of the victims was between life and death, without this having been confirmed by the authorities so far.
According to the organizers, 200 demonstrators were injured, 40 of them seriously, during the violent clashes near the construction site of the Sainte-Soline basin.
The still "provisional" assessment provided by the prosecutor's office relates only to people taken care of by the emergency services, which may explain the significant discrepancy between the figures, but "checks are underway," said the prosecutor.
Sixteen reservoirs, with a total capacity of about six million cubic meters, are to be built, mainly in the Deux-Sèvres department, as part of a project led by a cooperative of 450 farmers with the support of the State. This project aims to store water drawn from surface aquifers in winter in order to irrigate crops in summer, when rainfall is scarce.
Its supporters make it a condition for the survival of farms in the face of the threat of recurrent droughts. Opponents denounce a "grabbing" of water by "agribusiness" at a time of climate change.
With AFP
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