Clashes between anti-basin demonstrators and police in Sainte-Soline
Clashes between the police and the anti-basins, in Sainte-Soline, March 25, 2023. AFP - THIBAUD MORITZ
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
Clashes broke out this Saturday, March 25 between protesters and police around a disputed water reserve under construction in Sainte-Soline, Deux-Sèvres. Thousands of people mobilized despite the ban on gatherings.
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A long procession had begun to march at the end of the morning, composed of at least 6,000 people according to the prefecture, probably a little more, and about 25,000 people, according to the collective of associations "Bassines non merci", the environmental movement of the Earth Uprisings and the Peasant Confederation, all three organizers of this demonstration.
More than 3,000 gendarmes and police were mobilized on the spot, while "at least a thousand" violent activists, "ready to fight with the police", participate in the rally.
Demonstration prohibited
The demonstration, banned like the last one that led to clashes in the fall, converged on the "basin" of Sainte-Soline, nickname given by their opponents to water reserves under construction in the region for agricultural irrigation. "The goal is to approach and surround the basin to stop the work," said a member of the Earth Uprisings at the start of the procession, which then split into several groups for this purpose.
As the construction site approached, clashes quickly broke out between police and radical activists, with projectiles and mortar fire to which police and gendarmes responded with tear gas and water cannon.
(
With AFP)
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