The government takes action. On Tuesday February 1, the administrative court decided to restrict the activities of the Demeter cell. Its initial aim was to fight against crime in the agricultural sector, but also to prevent “actions of an ideological nature”. It is this last point that had been challenged in court by associations which therefore won their case.
The Demeter cell will be reorganized and its actions specified, announces by press release the Ministry of the Interior which in fact had no real choice, constrained by the decision of the administrative court which gives it two months to execute.
Created at the end of 2019, its aim was to fight against crime in the agricultural world, such as theft on farms or their degradation.
Respond to serious attacks on freedom of expression
This objective will persist, it is its other mission which has been successfully challenged in court by associations, that of preventing actions of an ideological nature, a catch-all term allowing serious violations of freedom of expression, according to the complainants. .
Indeed, the activists of these associations denounced measures of intimidation on the part of the police: home visits, summonses to the post, methods used to silence, according to them, a critical voice of intensive agriculture.
The decision of the Administrative Court is therefore applauded on their side, with a taste of incompleteness however since they demanded the pure and hard dissolution of the Demeter cell.