“This trial is part of the fight. It is very important. Forcing justice to position itself on our actions is essential”. On the eve of his trial, Sébastien, an activist involved in the Last Renovation collective, does not lose sight of the stakes of the cause he is defending. This Wednesday, he appears before the 10th correctional chamber of the Paris court, for the blocking of the Paris ring road, which took place on December 10. Lucas, another Last Renovation activist will accompany him for having blocked the Champs Elysées on December 8 alongside other people.
The activists who claim actions of “civil disobedience, the only coherent way to move the lines”, according to Sébastien, accept without batting an eyelid this passage in front of justice. “When we block a road with Last Renovation, we do it knowing that we will be arrested. We stay put until the police arrive. It is important for us to take responsibility for our actions, to respond to justice and to go through this stage. We have to convince the judges that what we’re doing is like letting an ambulance pass a red light. Normally it is forbidden, but in the face of an emergency, we let her do it. For the success of our action and our cause, we must recognize our legitimacy to violate certain legal texts”. At 37, this teacher-researcher appeared for the first time in court: “it was my third or fourth police custody but I had never had a trial”.
“The state does not have the means to bring every arrested activist to trial”
“I got into civil disobedience about a year ago. My first action was to block a stage of the Tour de France in 2022”, he narrates. From his career, we will remember that Sébastien lived his first police custody rather very well. “Unlike others, I found myself in an individual cell of a small police station in the Hautes-Alpes where I spent 24 hours alone, and where I was able to do my introspection, reflect on the continuation of my action activist. And I decided to invest myself all the more in civil disobedience”.
This is also why he participated in the action sequence organized in December in three stages, the blocking of the Champs Elysées on the 8th, the blocking of the Mont Blanc tunnel with Ultima Generazione in Italy on the 9th and 10th, a massive blockage of the two lanes of the Paris ring road with 25 people at Porte d’Ivry. “I am the only one to appear for this action when we were almost 30 yes, perhaps because I am starting to have several police custody on the counter. Several hundred members of Last Renovation have been taken into police custody, but the State does not have the means to bring each arrested activist to trial”.
Relax or dispense with punishment, “a small victory”
Sébastien’s hearing is due to start at 9 am. “I’m a little mixed on what awaits me. On the one hand, I have great hope that our action will be recognized as legitimate, for the general good and I hope to succeed in convincing the judges that our action is relevant and just”. He thus considers that a release or an exemption from sentence, as it has already been decided for convicted activists, would be “a small victory”. “But I have already attended a trial of this kind, and I know that it can be a bit complicated to live with, that not everyone is necessarily very benevolent and friendly with the accused. We’ll see how it goes.”
The teacher-researcher, engaged for many years in militant activities, does not however doubt the validity of his actions. “Despite people demonstrating or standing for election, nothing is moving forward, nothing is happening. I have been invested in reintegration organizations, in the fight against disability, but in the face of such an enormous and urgent threat such as climate issues, water pollution, air pollution, biodiversity, etc., everything what else we do and that we thought would be useful no longer makes sense”. Sébastien thus affirms that his trial is only one cog in the struggle in which he is engaged. “According to the IPCC, we have two to three years left to reduce our emissions, because if the trigger occurs later, it will be too late to ensure livable conditions for future generations. The important thing is there, my personal case does not count. »