- 61 of the injured are gendarmes and three people are hospitalized.

Incidents in France due to protests against a reservoir.

Almost a hundred injured in a protest against a dam in France

Almost a hundred people, mostly gendarmes, were injured this Saturday in clashes between security forces and participants in a protest against the project of a reservoir for irrigation in the French department of Deux-Sèvres.

The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, explained on his Twitter account that 61 gendarmes were injured in the clashes that occurred in the surroundings of the town of Sainte Soline, fifty kilometers from the city of Niort, in the center of France.

"That figure shows - underlined Darmain - that it was not a peaceful demonstration, but a very violent concentration. I hope that all the republican political forces will condemn that violence".

The agents arrested six of the participants in the protest, against whom the Prefecture of the department (Government delegation) had preventively decreed the prohibition of any demonstration throughout the weekend in Sainte Soline because it feared altercations.

The environmental organization created to combat the construction of this reservoir and the other fifteen that are part of the project stated that the clashes with the security forces, who used riot gear such as tear gas, caused around thirty injuries among the protesters.

A dozen of them had to be treated by the health services and three hospitalized, always according to the organizers.

#SainteSoline [Deux-Sèvres] 🔴 Nombreuses violences dont des tirs de mortiers à l'encontre des #gendarmes chargés de garantir l'ordre public. Total soutien à nos gendarmes blessés #vousProtéger pic.twitter.com/06ut5QSpf8

— Gendarmerie nationale (@Gendarmerie) October 29, 2022

The prefect of Deux-Sèvres, Emmanuelle Dubée, denounced that the gendarmes received Molotov cocktails and projectiles launched with mortars by the around 4,000 demonstrators (the organizers estimated them at around 8,000), some of which entered the perimeter of the works before being evicted.

The authorities had mobilized 1,500 gendarmes, supported from the air by half a dozen helicopters, to confront the demonstrators, some of whom were hooded or had their faces covered so as not to be identified.

The reason for the protest is the plan to dig a reservoir for irrigation that would be filled with water collected during the winter to, according to its promoters, avoid having to do it in summer when it is scarcer.

In fact, this is one of the 16 reservoirs to be built, with a capacity of up to 650,000 cubic meters each (equivalent to 250 Olympic swimming pools), to supply the farms of some 400 farmers in the region.

Despite being banned, the protest was backed by the agricultural union Confederación Campesina, which denounces a project designed for the benefit of a few.

Environmental leaders such as the deputy Sandrine Rousseau or the MEP Yannick Jadot, a former candidate for the Elysée in last spring's elections, who asked the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to put an end to "this aberrant project" also attended.

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