FRANCE: Convictions of Sainte-Soline organisers deepen concerns of criminalisation of environmental activism
A French court has upheld the convictions of four environmental activists for organising a March 2023 protest against the mega basin water reservoir project in Sainte-Soline in Deux-Sèvres. Two members of the environmental movements Les Soulèvements de la Terre and Bassines Non Merci received prison sentences o suspended f three and six months. Two organisers from the farmers’ union Confédération paysanne were each fined €800. The mobilisation against the water project became a landmark mobilisation for environmental and climate justice in France.
The Sainte-Soline protest brought together an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 protesters. Observers from the French Human Rights League (LDH), documented widespread and disproportionate use of force, tear gas, and explosive grenades against protesters by the over 3000 gendarmes policing the protest, resulting in hundreds of protesters being injured and leaving two people in a life-threatening coma. Excessive force was used also against journalists, legal observers, and medics, and emergency medical assistance was delayed or obstructed during the operation.
The rulings are particularly significant in light of a decision published on 8 July by France’s Ombudsperson (Défenseure des droits), which confirmed civil society claims and found serious misconduct in the policing of the Sainte-Soline protest. According to the report, law enforcement officers used disproportionate, indiscriminate force and unlawful weapons, and obstructed access to medical assistance for injured protesters. The report criticised the authorities for adopting a “logic of confrontation” and called for disciplinary proceedings against members of the gendarmerie. The convictions illustrate a growing trend of using public order legislation against protesters and social movements and creating a chilling effect on the exercise of the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of association.