In Sainte-Soline, Saturday March 25, violence and fear were invited to the demonstration against the mega-basins. On this plot of several hectares in Deux-Sèvres, there was no shortage of images to describe the chaos when clashes broke out between police and demonstrators – who numbered more than 30,000 according to the organizers, and between 6,000 and 8,000 according to the authorities. . Clashes broke out between the two camps and several injuries were reported.
And this is the whole subject of the controversy around Sainte-Soline: were the wounded really able to be taken care of in time? To defend itself, the National Gendarmerie launched this Wednesday a “fake news alert” with red letters on his Twitter account. “The information that the gendarmes blocked the rescue services in Sainte-Soline is false. This is what happened: Help with evacuations and projection of a medical team from the gendarmerie among the demonstrators”.
Except that this claim goes against the previous revelations of several media, in particular The world And Mediapart. Contradicting answers on which 20 minutes wanted to look into it by tracing the route of the alleged fake news.
- Saturday March 25: D-Day of violent demonstrations
As we specified earlier, the demonstrations in Sainte-Soline left many injured. On Sunday, according to a first count by the Niort prosecutor’s office, the emergency services took care of seven injured demonstrators, including three treated in absolute urgency and hospitalized. The organizers themselves evoke a much heavier toll, with 200 demonstrators injured, including 40 seriously. Two demonstrators are in a coma and one of them has his vital prognosis still engaged this Friday.
- Monday March 27: Darmanin defends himself
At a press conference on Monday, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin returned to the facts. “No, the gendarmes did not launch an LBD on a quad. (…) No, no weapons of war were used in Sainte-Soline. (…) No, the security forces did not prevent the emergency services from intervening. It was the gendarmes and the emergency services who were prevented from intervening by certain thugs. However, one of the assertions has already proven to be false, that of the use of weapons of war. Our colleagues from the fact checking section of ReleaseChecknews, demonstrated the opposite.
- Tuesday March 28: “Le Monde” reveals a recording
The next day, the daily The world in turn revealed a conversation of more than seven minutes between a doctor and a firefighter, followed by the SAMU. In the recording – initially obtained by an observer from La Ligue des droits de l’homme (LDH) present in Sainte-Soline – the SAMU professionals indicate that they cannot send relief under a contraindication obtained “by the forces of the order”. “We do not have the authorization to send help on the spot, because it is considered to be dangerous on the spot”, we hear on the recordings broadcast later on Mediapart.
The same day, the prefect of Deux-Sèvres answered in a press release that relief had indeed been provided thanks to the doctors of the gendarmerie “who notably rescued an injured participant in absolute urgency”. “It is up to the police, informed in real time of the situation, to define whether the arrival of an emergency vehicle at a certain point is possible or not in a way for him. It is therefore not surprising that, if these security conditions were not met, the police forces could, for certain geologizations or in certain periods of time, indicate that an ambulance dispatch was not not immediately possible”. The question of military doctors is interesting because in the recordings, the firefighter explains on the contrary that they are only dedicated to the forces of order, and not to the demonstrators.
The same day, the Samu of the Deux-Sèvres department defends itself in turn in a tweet “Justice will do its job and we will make ourselves available to them to give them all the necessary information, as we do in each investigation. Be aware, however, that sending an ambulance to a confrontation zone with oxygen is not recommended with the risk of explosion: O2 + gas (fuel) + heat source (explosive devices) do not mix well! In view of the situation, we took the risk of sending him under protection to take care of the victims. »
In several media, such as France 3 and Le Parisien, the head of the Niort emergency department Farnam Faranpour also spoke, indicating on several occasions: “There were no gendarmerie roadblocks to prevent relief”. “Our regulator is called and we tell him of a person in a coma. We are told that he is very close to the police vehicles on fire. In this zone, at this moment, we don’t go there, period. There is no question of prohibition, but I do not send my doctors to an area where they can be injured, or even worse, “he still defends to the Parisian.
While on Thursday, the Defender of Rights Claire Hédon announced that she would automatically take up the case of the two demonstrators seriously injured on Saturday, an independent investigation will be opened to determine “the circumstances in which these injuries were caused, and the conditions in which the people wounded were rescued.
Beyond this question, the reaction of the national gendarmerie shows a new form of very offensive communication. Alerting to “fake news”, the institution falls into a surprising exercise, as the former Minister of the Family Dominique Bertinotti remarks: “I find your process astonishing. If the national gendarmerie feels the need to give its version, it is its greatest right. For this there are press releases. Then it’s up to the citizens to make up their minds, but here to roughly slap the notion of fake news on us is too much “. Requested by 20 minutes on this subject, the National Gendarmerie does not wish to react as long as the investigation is in progress.