(ReclaimingAmerica.net) – Radical climate change protesters set police cars on fire. They clashed with thousands of riot police officers in France in an attempt to stop the building of a massive new water reservoir for farm irrigation.
You can see videos of what took place at the bottom of this post.
About 3,000 French riot police fought to beat back some 6,000 “violent activists” in Sainte-Soline, Deux-Sèvres region, in Western France, Le Figaro reported, as cited by Breitbart News.
The climate change protesters arrived en masse at the “mega-basin” construction site, which is supposed to collect rainwater for use by farms in the region.
The activists have been campaigning against the project because of what they argue is climate change’s impact on water distribution.
Their violent outbursts have come against the backdrop of other violent street protests in France as President Emmanuel Macron and his government increased the country’s retirement age.
Statements by the French authorities revealed that at least 28 riot police officers had been wounded by the leftist radicals, including two in “absolute emergency” due to the injuries they sustained in the clashes.
The climate rioters reportedly attacked the police with Molotov cocktails and makeshift mortar missiles. They managed to burn down two police vans and three police trucks.
Before they were forced out of the area of the future water reservoir, the environmentalist radicals succeeded in disabling a pipe and a water pump in the basin.
“While the country is rising to defend pensions, we will simultaneously stand up to defend water,” the protest organizers said on Friday.
The green rioters set up a camp that they named a “militant community.” It was near the construction side but on private land to avoid getting removed by riot police.
The activists insisted on killing the project and replacing it with a “water sharing” scheme, which would hamper the efforts of the “agro-industry” from controlling water supplies.
The new clashes aren’t the first in the area. In October, far-left green protesters injured 61 riot police officers, including 22 with serious injuries.
“It is not the extreme left that will prevail,” commented French Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin while denouncing the “inexcusable violence” of the climate activists.
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, whose Cabinet barely survived a no-confidence vote last week, condemned the “unacceptable acts as well as the irresponsibility of radical speeches that encourage these actions.”
“[The French government will] support the gendarmes and firefighters engaged in ensuring republican order in the face of an intolerable surge of violence,” she said.
In the meantime, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a failed far-left presidential candidate likened to Bernie Sanders in the US, published Twitter posts blasting the “police violence” against the climate radicals.
Leftist groups claimed that up to 200 protesters suffered some injury because of tear gas grenades used by the police.
Here are the videos:
Jets de cocktails molotov sur les gendarmes, saccage des réserves d’eau.
Montée inquiétante de l’activisme écologiste dans notre pays.
Ces terroristes veulent abattre la France. Il est grand temps de les combattre ! #DeuxSèvres #megabassines pic.twitter.com/QHbh9APuMa
— Eric Ciotti (@ECiotti) March 25, 2023
ALERTE – Situation explosive dans les Deux-Sèvres ! De très violents affrontements sont en cours à Sainte-Soline lors de la manifestation contre le projet de méga-bassines. Plusieurs blessés. Les véhicules des forces de l'ordre sont en feu. (Facebook – PhoThéO) #SainteSoline pic.twitter.com/VYLZF4ZGYE
— Infos Françaises (@InfosFrancaises) March 25, 2023
