Six members of the unions and associations who called for a rally against the “megabassin” of Sainte-Soline on March 25 were placed in police custody for “organizing a demonstration prohibited on the public highway”, the Niort prosecutor’s office reported on Wednesday 28 June. They are “six men, aged 38 to 46 and claiming to belong to the Bassines non merci collectives, Les Uprisings of the Earth and the Peasant Confederation”, specifies the prosecutor of Niort, Julien Wattebled, in a press release. Their identities have not been disclosed.

For two of them, police custody also concerns the organization of the demonstration of October 29, 2022, also prohibited by the prefecture of Deux-Sèvres. They are summoned in the context of “investigations (…) concerning the criminal offenses committed during these demonstrations”. Two other officials “representing the CGT and Solidaires 79” were summoned “to be heard in free hearing” about the October demonstration, adds the magistrate.

The Confédération paysanne “denounces these scandalous intimidation and repression maneuvers” in a press release in which it confirms the custody of its former national spokesperson, Nicolas Girod, and of the spokesperson for its Deux-Sèvres section, Benoît Yolk. The convocations took place in three departments: Deux-Sèvres, Loire-Atlantique and Jura.

“You can try to cut heads, we’re still here”

In Rezé (Loire-Atlantique), around thirty people, including CGT trade unionists, as well as a tractor, gathered on Wednesday morning in front of the gendarmerie to support three summoned activists, who live in the former ZAD of Notre-Dame. -des-Landes, noted a correspondent from Agence France-Presse. According to the CGT, one of them is Basile Dutertre, one of the spokespersons of the Uprisings of the Earth, dissolved this week by the government.

In Niort, the spokesperson for the Bassines non merci collective, Julien Le Guet, considered that a “new Rubicon has been crossed” with this summons of union officials “simply because they were fulfilling their mission of defending the general interest “. “We’re not going to let this go, you can try to cut off heads, we’re still here for quite a while,” he said before entering the gendarmerie.

Last week, a 42-year-old man was sentenced to 10 months in prison and imprisoned for violence against gendarmes during the March demonstration, which left 200 protesters injured, according to organizers.

Four other men, arrested last week for events that occurred during this rally, will be tried at the end of July.