Several actions are organized to commemorate the demonstration and the clashes which took place against megabasins in Sainte-Soline on March 25, 2023.
On March 25, 2023, a demonstration against a water retention project for agricultural use, called a megabasin, was held in Sainte-Soline, in Deux-Sèvres. Violent clashes took place between demonstrators and the police, leaving several injured and plunging two demonstrators into a coma. Despite a ban from the Deux-Sèvres prefecture, activists gathered around a megabasin construction site, monitored by 3,000 gendarmes. A year after Sainte-Soline, opponents of megabasins organized “commemor’actions” and indicated that they wished to file a complaint against the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.
Thus, a gathering is planned for Saturday March 23 between the municipalities of Melle and Sainte-Soline to build a cairn in support of victims of police violence. Less than 500 people are expected, according to a police source who indicates they are on “vigilance”, but without “big concerns”, reports The Parisian. In anticipation, the department’s prefecture banned the transport of explosive materials and authorized the use of drones to monitor the area. Activists also planned “mega-booms” in front of gendarmes and prefectures, in response to the 5,000 tear gas canisters fired on March 25, 2023 in Sainte-Soline.
In addition, a “collective referral to the Court of Justice of the Republic for false testimony” will be presented on Sunday March 24 against Gérald Darmanin, accused of having “lied on several occasions” about the progress of the demonstration. On its site, the collective “Bassines non merci” explains that it wishes to “remind, as many times as necessary, that that weekend, the Macron government tried to silence political hope through mass mutilation” .