The March 2023 demonstration degenerated into clashes with the police, leaving many injured. Two demonstrators had spent several weeks in a coma. The Niort criminal court on Wednesday sentenced three organizers of banned demonstrations in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres) against the “basins”, these contested irrigation reserves, to suspended prison terms.
Julien Le Guet, spokesperson for the collective “Bassines non merci” (BNM), was sentenced to twelve months suspended sentence, in accordance with the requisitions, and banned from appearing in Sainte-Soline and Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon ( Deux-Sèvres) for three years. Joan Monga, alias Basile Dutertre, and Nicolas Garrigues, alias Benoît Feuillu, two members of the collective Les Soulèvements de la Terre, were respectively sentenced to nine months and six months in prison.
Fines against six other defendants
The Niort criminal court also imposed fines on the six other defendants for their involvement in four mobilizations that occurred around the contested construction sites in Poitou between March 26, 2022 and March 25, 2023. Among these six other defendants were two members of the Peasant Confederation, two local trade unionists affiliated respectively to the CGT and Solidaires, a member of BNM and an organic farmer.
These “substitution reserves”, which aim to store water drawn from groundwater in winter in order to irrigate crops in summer, are for their supporters essential harvest insurance for their survival in the face of recurring droughts. Conversely, their detractors describe a “grabbing” of water by agro-industry.
Next mobilization expected in July, just before the Olympics
After initial violence during the October 2022 demonstration in Sainte-Soline, the March 2023 demonstration quickly degenerated into clashes with the gendarmes, leaving numerous injured. In a report, the Human Rights League denounced a “disproportionate use” of weapons (tear gas grenades, LBD) by the police.
A parliamentary commission of inquiry concluded in mid-November that the three movements which had called for demonstrations in Sainte-Soline were “overwhelmingly responsible” despite prefectural bans. A next mobilization against “basins” is announced next July in Poitou, just before the Paris Olympic Games.
As during the trial, the supporters of the defendants, opponents of “megabasins”, called for a rally in front of the court on Wednesday morning.