"Jean-Luc Mélenchon, he is rebellious to police violence, but he is submissive to all other forms of violence and you know why? Because Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his friends are the rentiers of anger, the rentiers of the misery of the little people and they are the shareholders of these forms of violence, "attacked the minister on BFMTV and RMC.

Mr. Véran accused them of being "ready to undermine our institutions for the causes they serve".

He considered "unacceptable" and irresponsible" the participation Saturday in the banned demonstration of Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres), against the megabasins, elected officials "essentially of the extreme left, wearing the scarf", who "explain that the problem (of violence) is the police", despite the "presence of hundreds of people who come from abroad to break the policeman", according to him.

A gendarmerie vehicle on fire during clashes punctuating a demonstration against the construction of a water reserve for agricultural irrigation, in Sainte-Soline, Deux-Sèvres, March 25, 2023 © pascal lachenaud / AFP

A protester is between life and death after violent clashes with the police, whose authorities and organizers deny responsibility amid opposition to a water reservoir project.

"It is not an offense to participate in a prohibited demonstration, everyone makes his choice, I think the cause is just," responded on RTL MP Clémence Guetté, who was one of the elected LFI present Saturday.

"Without the BRAV-M, without this circus, absolutely nothing would happen but a march in the fields," LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon said on Twitter.

"We respect the institutions, where some try to attack them sometimes with petanque balls, sometimes with angry tweets or sometimes with happenings in the hemicycle, with a continuum between the violence expressed in the National Assembly and that which can be found in the street," lamented Olivier Véran.

© 2023 AFP