Charles Guyard / Photo credit: Antoine Berlioz / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 10:50 a.m., March 23, 2024

A year ago, Sainte-Soline, a small town in Deux-Sèvres, was the scene of clashes between environmental protesters and the police. The crux of the matter: an artificial water retention site called a “mega-basin” and highly criticized. Some demonstrators were seriously injured. Activists are holding memorial rallies this weekend.

This is the name of a town that we now know perfectly well: Sainte-Soline. A year later, images of clashes immediately come to mind, which pitted environmental activists against the police around the construction site of an artificial water reservoir, called a "mega-basin". The demonstrations degenerated, leaving several injured. Events commemorated from this Saturday by hundreds of environmental activists.

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500 people expected this Saturday in Melle, a neighboring town

The chaos in Sainte-Soline was a year ago, when 30,000 demonstrators, according to the organizers, 5,000 to 6,000 according to the authorities, converged in the direction of the famous basin protected by 3,000 police forces. . In a few minutes, the banned demonstration turned into an ultra-violent confrontation between individuals equipped with iron bars and Molotov cocktails and the soldiers, who fired no less than 5,000 tear gas and sound grenades.

Results of the confrontation: several dozen injured, some with serious or even irreversible after-effects. Since then, the Rennes public prosecutor's office, in charge of the investigation, has interviewed around a hundred witnesses, including SAMU, analyzed more than 7,400 photos and videos, and carried out expert assessments in forensic medicine, chemistry and ballistics. The conclusions should be released by this summer.

In the meantime, commemorative gatherings are being organized this Saturday and in the coming days throughout France, notably in Melle, less than 20 kilometers from Sainte-Soline, where around 500 people are expected for a large picnic. This time, the Deux-Sèvres prefecture did not communicate on the device deployed, only indicating that the area will be monitored by drones.