clashes between anti-basins and farmers in Sainte-Soline

Wednesday December 18, 2024, between 6:30 p.m. and 7:15 p.m., twenty-five to thirty demonstrators from the Bassines non merci collective went to the Sainte-Soline basin, in Deux-Sèvres. Having managed to enter the enclosure of the reserve by cutting two chains with the pliers, they then went around it, along the dike singing songs of jubilation.

A few hours earlier, in the afternoon, the administrative court of Bordeaux announced that it would suspend the authorization of four basins in Deux-Sèvres and Vienne, those of Saint-Sauvant in Vienne, those of Messé, Mougon and therefore, of Sainte-Soline.

Several blows

An action “symbolic” which took place smoothly, until the demonstrators left the area, around 7:15 p.m. The convoy then crossed paths with around twenty farmers and members of the Coop de l’eau 79 who had gathered at a distance, several hundred meters from the Sainte-Soline basin.

After a tense face-to-face, around fifteen people left cars and tractors to engage in violent clashes. Several blows were struck, until the gendarmes intervened and Thierry Boudaud, president of the Coop de l’eau 79, called on the farmers to calm down and the demonstrators to leave the area. “as quickly as possible”.

The two groups separated around 7:45 p.m. It is currently unknown whether there were any injuries in the scuffle.