Government spokesman Olivier Véran confirmed on Tuesday the forthcoming dissolution of the environmental association the Uprisings of the Earth (SLT) because “the climatic cause does not justify going to stone the gendarmes on a field”.
Perhaps at the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, perhaps at that of “next week” but in any case the dissolution will be pronounced “as soon as possible”, specified Mr. Véran on the set of CNews, questioned on a possible “rise in violence” in society, after the very violent attack on an old lady and a little girl in Bordeaux.
“We do not dissolve an association based on its ideas, we dissolve it because there are abuses or the endangerment of public safety, this is the case here”, he summarized.
More generally, he felt that “as our society modernizes, aspirations for security grow”. “In the same movement, we see several forms of violence emerging on the margins of our society”, he continued, citing “the violence that we have seen in certain demonstrations”, “the gratuitous violence of everyday life” , “verbal violence (…) on social networks”, “violence at school through harassment…”.
The Uprisings of the Earth have, according to him, “showed violence in Sainte-Soline (during a demonstration against a giant reservoir of water for irrigation, editor’s note), by inviting thugs who came from all over Europe with metal bars, petanque balls to try to kill police officers”.
From a source familiar with the matter, the dissolution decree will be presented to the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, unless there is a surprise.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin initiated this dissolution procedure on March 28, a few days after the violent clashes in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres).
Remained blocked for more than two months, the procedure moved last week, after the deterioration in particular of a vegetable farm in Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu (Loire-Atlantique) during a traveling demonstration against the exploitation sand for industrial purposes in Saint-Colomban, at the request of SLT in particular.
SLT is a motley collective of associations, unions, groups created in January 2021 in the former ZAD (zone to defend) of Notre-Dame-des-Landes.
On Twitter, Green MP Sandrine Rousseau was quick to react, going so far as to use a historical comparison a few days after Emmanuel Macron’s announcement of the entry into the Hall of Resistance fighter Missak Manouchian.
“During the June 18 call, the resistance movement was considered terrorist. It is June 20, and tomorrow, a movement for the defense of the Earth, will be considered terrorist,” she said.
MEP David Cormand, former head of EELV, for his part judged “the repressive relentlessness and criminalization of environmental activists symptomatic of the denial and blindness of this Government”, while the coordinator of France insubordinate (LFI) Manuel Bompard defended “pacifist citizens worried about the terrible consequences of climate inaction”. “You have to listen to them, not stop them or muzzle them.”
06/20/2023 16:10:14 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
