He assured that he did not have it “seen and heard”. After we uncovered videos of police violence during demonstrations in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres), chief Ecologist Marine Tondelier asked Gérald Darmanin on Monday evening, November 10, to consider resigning. He was Minister of Home Affairs at the time the incident occurred, and is currently Minister of Justice while the judicial investigation is still open.
Release and Mediapart last week published video from pedestrian cameras worn by police mobilized on March 25, 2023 around the construction site of a contested agricultural water reserve, nicknamed the “megabasin”, by thousands of demonstrators. In particular, we hear the police giving encouragement “tense shot” the use of grenades, a prohibited practice, against demonstrators and others to congratulate themselves on injuries caused.
“I awaited the reaction of the then Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. He refused to comment to the press. This is unacceptable”underlines Marine Tondelier, in a video published on social networks. Like other elected environmental activists, he was present at this demonstration.
“Several environmental MPs contacted the Rennes prosecutor who handled the case (…) But Gérald Darmanin, who is now Minister of Justice, is now his hierarchical superior”said the environmental leader. “For calm legal consequences that can be given regarding this revelation, we ask that if he cannot provide any explanation or apology, he resigns.added the man who is also a presidential candidate in the next election.
The Sainte-Soline rally, which was banned, turned into clashes between radical activists and police, with 5,000 grenades fired and a hail of stones and Molotov cocktails. The demonstrators have announced 200 injuries in their ranks, including 40 seriously, and 45 police.
The current Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, condemned the act “about” and it “cue” manned by police and seen on video, but he denied the term “police violence”. “I will never allow the internal security forces to be criticized and you know very well that facts like these, which are serious, I agree, (…) always allow some people to criticize in general the institution of the police or the gendarmerie,” the minister stated on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Rennes prosecutor’s office announced on Friday that this was indeed true “in-depth analysis” in an investigation open since 2023 into four people seriously injured during demonstrations in Sainte-Soline, without entrusting the case to an investigating judge at this stage as requested by the plaintiff.
After the video was broadcast by Release And media sectionseven MEPs and a European deputy also submitted a report to the Rennes prosecutor’s office “to condemn the methods of maintaining order during these events”added the Rennes prosecutor. At the same time, an administrative investigation was opened by the IGGN.
Even before the press release from the Rennes prosecutor’s office, the Judges’ Union had already reported this on Friday “major deficiencies in the legal treatment of these facts”.
