The prohibited demonstration in Sainte-Soline did not go unnoticed in the foreign press. If the mobilization could have given rise to a debate around water management, in Deux-Sèvres and more broadly in the country, our neighbors rather relayed the violence of the clashes which took place on Saturday March 25. On the Spanish site El Independiente, the journalist uses a martial vocabulary speaking of a thousand demonstrations “ready to do battle”. Some were “armed with pyrotechnics, axes and other blunt objects”. Twitter post and supporting photos, the Spanish site evokes “serious clashes”.
Already during the day on Saturday, The Daily Telegraph was on the alert. Our British colleagues had decided to anticipate the violence in Sainte-Soline with an article entitled: “France is preparing for demonstrations after the ‘humiliating’ postponement of King Charles’ visit“. But more than the rallies against the pension reform “in Brest, Montpellier, Nice or Dijon”, the police “seemed to fear more the demonstration at ‘high risk’ preparing in Sainte-Soline, in the center of France ” , narrates the Paris correspondent of the conservative daily. Last October, a similar and already banned demonstration also “gave rise to very violent clashes”, recalls The Daily Telegraph.
For its part, the Spanish daily El País had dispatched a journalist to go there. Antonio Jiménez Barca writes that this demonstration “testifies to the destructive spiral in which street opposition to Macron has embarked”. As a hook, he chooses to detail the violence suffered by a demonstrator: “On the dirt road, there is a girl no more than 20 years old lying on the ground, covered with one of these thermal blankets like golden paper Albal. His face is disfigured, a black eye and a mouth full of blood.”
“France is burning”
In many articles, the image of a France overwhelmed by violence takes precedence over the need for ecological and agricultural reflection around these mega-basins. Testifies to this one of the publications of the Rai News, with the surtitle “Brûler la France”. The title is even more evocative: “No more clashes in French cities, today guerrillas with wounded at the Sainte-Soline reservoir.” Inside, the article takes up information from several French media, while repeating that “France has been burning for ten days”. The paper refers to recent protests against pension reform.
“The scenes of violence in Sainte-Soline today came after days of nationwide protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform that led to the cancellation of a visit by King Charles III of the United Kingdom. United”, also contextualizes the DailyMail. In most British media, the excesses of Sainte-Soline are overshadowed by the cancellation of the visit of King Charles III.
The shock of this announcement is still palpable across the Channel. In The Independentthe “World” section opens this Sunday with the article: “King Charles’ visit to France postponed as anti-Macron rioters scribble “Death to the king”. To depict the ambient climate in France, the conservative newspaper Spectator is not afraid to use the word “anarchy”. Its columnist Gavin Mortimer, who lives in Paris, paints the portrait of a France “on the razor’s edge”. The British press fears a spread of violence.
Across the Atlantic, Sainte-Soline is of little interest. THE washington post is content to relay a dispatch from the Associated Press. Politico is one of the few American media to take an interest in the subject. Here, no France which “burns” or “in disorder”, but a simple reminder of the facts on the events of Saturday.