the Council of State suspends the dissolution in summary proceedings

The judge in chambers of the Council of State suspended, Friday August 11, the dissolution of the Uprisings of the Earth (LST), which had been decreed in the Council of Ministers on June 21. The government then denounced the “use of violence” group members. “Under the guise of defending the preservation of the environment”Earth Uprisings “incite the commission of sabotage and material damage, including by violence”justified the executive in the decree of dissolution, by listing a series of actions of the collective having led to “material destruction” And “physical attacks against the police”.

The procedure was initiated at the end of March, a few days after violent clashes between gendarmes and opponents of the construction of mega-basins in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres). But for the Council of State, “there is a serious doubt as to the qualification of provocation to violent acts against persons and property retained by the decree of dissolution”justifying the suspension of the dissolution of the group.

“Neither the documents in the file nor the exchanges during the hearing allow us to consider that the collective endorses in any way violent acts towards people”detail the judges, who believe that the “actions promoted by the Earth Uprisings that have led to damage to property” have only been “limited”.

LFI and EELV applaud

The interim decision is only the “first round of a very long legal battle” had recalled LST on Tuesday, before the summary hearing. In fact, as the Ministry of the Interior pointed out in a press release, this response from the Council of State to the requests for interim measures does not relate to the merits of the case and in no way prejudges the final decision on the well-being basis of this dissolution.

“If it is confirmed”, this decision of the Council of State “will constitute important case law on the right to disobedience in France”, estimated Basile Dutertre, one of the voices of the movement, with Agence France-Presse (AFP). She “confirms the profoundly unsuitable, unjustifiable and presumptuous nature of the dissolution proceedings against us”added a press release from the collective released in the evening. “The Council of State curbs the repressive ardor of the government”also welcomed the League of Human Rights (LDH) in a press release. “Victory for freedom of association! »welcomed Greenpeace.

Several left-wing leaders also welcomed the decision. “Justice has played its role of bulwark”declared the head of Europe Ecology-The Greens (EELV), Marine Tondelier, to AFP. “It is a government which is condemned by the same French justice for “climate inaction”, which does not manage to tackle the problem and which, to create a kind of diversion (…), prefers to attack the messenger”, she hammered.

For the coordinator of La France Insoumise (LFI), Manuel Bompard, “the Council of State says stop the authoritarian drift of power”. “Macronism is outlawed”, he wrote on X (Twitter). “You don’t dissolve an uprising! », adds LFI MEP Manon Aubry. For the former presidential candidate and historical figure of the “rebellious”, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, with this decision, “the legitimacy of civic disobedience is gaining ground”.

At the opposite end of the political spectrum, the president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, judged on X (Twitter) that “By its incompetence, the government has just offered, on a platter, to the far left a victory over the state”. On the side of the Renaissance presidential party, the chairman of the Assembly’s law commission, Sacha Houlié, estimated that the decision of the Council of State “don’t legitimate[ait] in no way past or future violent actions”.

The dissolution of the collective was announced on March 28 by Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, a few days after the violent clashes between gendarmes and opponents of the water reservoirs of Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres). In October 2022, during a first demonstration on the spot, the minister had derided “ecoterrorism” perpetrators of violence by pointing to LST.

Punch Actions

But since the end of March, the decree had been blocked because of the difficulty for the government to legally secure this decision concerning a meeting of structures recognized by the public authorities. The file had moved in June after the deterioration of a vegetable farm in Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu (Loire-Atlantique) during a traveling demonstration at the call of the collective in particular.

Elected officials were moved by the punch actions carried out during this demonstration. So much so that in the Council of Ministers, Emmanuel Macron had pressed Elisabeth Borne to quickly give his approval to the decree of dissolution, according to a source close to the government.

LST is a motley group of associations and unions, the collective was created in January 2021 in the former ZAD (zone to defend) of Notre-Dame-des-Landes. This is a de facto grouping, that is to say that it is not formally declared to the public authorities. LST has become one of the main players in the environmental protest “radical” and claims actions of occupation or sometimes of sabotage in the name of the defense of the environment. The Uprisings of the Earth announce that their next action will take place on August 18: a convoy of water against the mega-basins, made up of nine hundred bicycles and twenty tractors, will leave Sainte-Soline, before holding a press briefing. .