Many left-wing leaders on Wednesday condemned the dissolution of the Earth Uprisings (SLT) collective, denouncing a “repression” against environmentalists and an “attack on freedom of association”.
SLT was dissolved on Wednesday in the Council of Ministers. Reason invoked by the executive: its “major role in the design, dissemination and legitimization of violent operating methods”.
The collective announced at the end of the afternoon that it was going to file an appeal before the Council of State against this decision, which raises many legal questions.
For Marine Tondelier, the head of Europe Ecology Les Verts, the motivation is above all “political”. There “is no evidence of anything” justifying the ministerial decree, she said on Twitter.
Earlier, she criticized “the oversized means of repression” and “intimidation” put in place by the government. “I will not let this government scapegoat environmentalists for their climate inaction.”
The president of the environmental deputies Cyrielle Chatelain denounced an “escalation”. We “use an arsenal designed to fight against terrorists for militants who have never put anyone’s physical safety at risk”, she lamented during a press conference at the Assembly.
Their colleague Delphine Batho also deemed this dissolution “contrary to the rule of law”. But she nevertheless specified that she was not “aligned with the strategy of the Earth Uprisings”, which seemed to her “counter-productive”.
Indignation was also on the side of La France insoumise. “The question that is being asked today is the freedom that exists in our country to oppose this government”, declared the leader of the LFI deputies Mathilde Panot.
For her, “it is the first time in history that France has decided to dissolve an environmental movement”.
She deplored that the reason for the dissolution is based on the separatism law, a controversial text adopted in 2022, which LFI had denounced, announcing that her movement was going to file a bill to demand “the repeal of all the provisions which are contrary to the freedoms of association of this country”.
“I am against dissolution,” also tweeted Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of La France insoumise. In Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres), scene of violence at the end of March during a demonstration against a mega-basin, “the violence was provoked by Mr. Darmanin. The maintenance of order by this government is condemned by the ‘UN to the Council of Europe, throughout the whole civilized world”.
Former Greens presidential candidate Yannick Jadot also stressed on Twitter that “the repression of the environmental movement, as authoritarian as it is absurd, cannot mask the denial by Emmanuel Macron and his government of a model that destroys the conditions same of life!”.
“Preferring to lock up activists, dissolve a movement rather than look the problem of global warming in the face. You will remain like those who have finally understood nothing of the issues”, added EELV deputy Sandrine Rousseau, Julien Bayou denouncing “an attack freedom of association”.
In a column published in Liberation, the deputy, like a hundred other elected EELV and LFI, call to continue to resist in the face of “an unprecedented drift”.
In the meantime, SLT is calling for early evening rallies in front of the prefectures.
06/21/2023 17:50:14 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
