LA ROCHELLE: Environmental protesters clashed with police in France’s western port of La Rochelle on Saturday, journalists saw, as conservationists and small farmers mobilised against massive irrigation reservoirs under construction.

A 2,000-strong march, one of two through the city, was turned back and broke up at around 2pm after being charged by police. Running battles erupted around barricades and burning rubbish bins as some threw projectiles and police fired tear gas grenades.

“We were in the demo, they started blocking ahead and behind. They isolated us off to one side to charge everyone else,” said Lilia, a 25-year-old who declined to give her second name.

A police source said around 400 participants in the march were so-called “black bloc” far-left radicals. Prosecutors in La Rochelle said one policewoman suffered burns and five lightly-wounded demonstrators received medical care. Several shops were damaged or looted, along with bus shelters and advertising hoardings.

The second more peaceful march, made up of around 3,000 people including some families, moved from the city centre towards the commercial port. Some used kayaks or inflatable boats to approach the La Pallice agricultural export terminal, singled out by organisers as the target for the demonstrations.

By 3pm, around 3,500 people from the two marches were still gathered at the seashore, a police source said. Police had earlier used tear gas to clear around 200 people who entered the terminal at dawn, including farmers with old tractors. That confrontation broke up mostly peacefully.

The protests in the city on France’s Atlantic coast were intended to show that new “reservoirs aren’t being built to grow food locally, but to feed international markets,” said Julien Le Guet, a spokesman for the “Reservoirs, No Thanks” movement.

Activists say the reservoirs, set to be filled from aquifers in winter to provide summer irrigation, benefit only large farmers at the expense of smaller operations and the environment.

Several dozen are under construction in western France, with backers saying that without them farms risk vanishing as they suffer through repeated droughts.

Last year, mass clashes between thousands of demonstrators and police in Sainte-Soline, around 90 kilometres inland from La Rochelle, left two protesters in a coma and injured 30 officers.

Further scuffles broke out Saturday as demonstrators returned to La Rochelle’s centre from the agricultural port, with some launching fireworks at the police, who responded with tear gas and water cannon. “Ceasefire, there are children in the march,” Le Guet shouted. “Don’t make the same mistake as at Sainte-Soline”.

Fears of clashes had been high all week, with more than 3,000 police deployed around a “Water Village” protest camp in Melle, a few kilometres from Sainte-Soline, as authorities warned of a risk of “great violence”. The prefecture had sought to ban demonstrations in popular summer tourist destination La Rochelle, but organisers went ahead.

On Saturday, “our aim wasn’t to clash with law enforcement, it’s often law enforcement who aim to clash with us,” said Juliette Riviere, an SLT member. Prosecutors said that six people had been held in custody by mid-afternoon Saturday.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2024