A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #355 - In Sainte-Soline, as elsewhere, "police violence" is state violence. (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The videos released by Mediapart and Libération on November 5 and 6, 
2025, have, of course, made a strong impression. They show gendarmes 
"behaving badly" (in their actions and words) during the anti-reservoir 
demonstration that took place in Sainte-Soline on March 25, 2023; and 
they prove that the multiple "non-regulation" shots fired by them (1) 
were on the orders of their superiors. The widespread condemnation 
sparked by the content of these videos-impossible to refute because they 
came from the body cameras worn by the gendarmes-forced the State to 
install various safeguards to protect itself from the scandal... because 
it is the State that is responsible for police violence.

The repression and obstruction of emergency services during the 
Sainte-Soline demonstration sparked controversy immediately afterward. 
The prefect of Deux-Sèvres, Dubée (former chief of staff to Gérald 
Darmanin), maintained that the deployment-3,200 police officers who 
launched more than 5,000 grenades in a matter of minutes-was 
"proportionate to the risk of violence," while the LDH (Human Rights 
League) denounced the police's "disproportionate" use of force.
The government also attempted to counter the figure of 200 injured 
protesters, at least four of them seriously, by citing a figure of... 45 
among the police-a maneuver made all the more unconvincing by the fact 
that this count included 18 cases of "noise trauma" caused by police 
gunfire.
Complaints, including for attempted murder and for willful obstruction 
of the arrival of emergency services, had been filed concerning four 
seriously injured people (2), which had forced the prosecutor Philippe 
Astruc, in charge of military affairs at the court of Rennes, to launch 
an investigation into police violence in Sainte-Soline.

The diversions attempted by the State after the release of the police videos
The General Inspectorate of the National Gendarmerie (IGGN), to which 
this investigation was entrusted, took two years to deliver the results 
of its inquiries. Throughout this time, it had in its possession the 
body camera footage recently brought to light by Mediapart and 
Libération, but failed to mention in its report the criminal acts it 
contained (3). Its reluctance to do so is all the more understandable 
given that the footage refutes the argument of "self-defense" often 
invoked by the police to justify killings (if not assassinations). 
Finally, all the individuals interviewed by the IGGN were questioned as 
witnesses, not suspects, which paved the way for the public prosecutor 
to dismiss the case.
As highlighted in the press release issued on November 5 by the four 
seriously injured and their relatives who had filed a complaint the day 
after the demonstration (4), the IGGN report is therefore "biased and 
incomplete".

Confronted with the footage recorded on March 25, 2023, by gendarmes' 
body cameras, Colonel Erwan Coiffard spoke of "breaches of professional 
ethics," Interior Minister Nuñez of "acts of violence that may not have 
been proportionate," and the government has been working to divert 
attention from them.
Nuñez announced on November 6 the opening of an administrative inquiry, 
which is yet another smokescreen. Since the IGGN (General Inspectorate 
of the National Gendarmerie) is in charge of it, it is highly likely 
that it will simply lead, someday, to the designation of "bad apples" 
identified from the videos, who will then be "pushed out" (permanently 
or otherwise) from the police force in order to whitewash the police. 
However, it is unlikely that Major General Samuel Dubuis, head of the 
command at Sainte-Soline, will ever be implicated: in November 2024, he 
became Inspector General of the Armed Forces for the Gendarmerie at the 
suggestion of the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu.
For his part, Public Prosecutor Frédéric Teillet (Astruc's successor at 
the Rennes court) also announced in a press release on November 6 that 
he needed time to decide whether or not to continue the investigation. 
He explained this decision by citing the "complexity" of a case file he 
has had for six months, and the "density" of the report written by the 
lawyer for the four plaintiffs in response to the IGGN's investigation, 
given that the questions raised in this report focus heavily on the 
"grey areas" left by its inquiry.
Those injured who filed complaints are not requesting legal proceedings 
because they believe in the neutrality of the courts or expect "justice" 
from them, but rather to ensure that further investigations are 
conducted outside the purview of the National Gendarmerie Inspectorate 
(IGGN) by placing them under the authority of an investigating judge. 
This is because the "police of the gendarmerie" has neither examined the 
conditions of the emergency response in Sainte-Soline nor interviewed 
the gendarmes present in the videos, nor their superiors. It noted a few 
"dysfunctions" in the organization of these emergency services, but 
without addressing them. For example, it did not investigate why the 
fire department command center did not respond to calls for help during 
the demonstration. Similarly, although the rescue services were not 
allowed to access the injured near the megabasin without a police 
escort, the IGGN did not question the gendarmerie motorcyclists who took 
an "inexplicable" amount of time to reach an ambulance and abandoned it 
on the way (5).

Whether it's mega-reservoirs or pensions, the State is waging a class war.
Denouncing, as the left so skillfully does (6), the "police system" as 
it exists today in France is a delusion that must be dispelled. The aim 
is to persuade us that the police act independently of the government; 
or even that there could be "good" repression, "correct" state violence, 
if the political affiliation of its representatives changed... whereas 
when the left governed, it too allowed/authorized the police to engage 
in coercive practices deemed illegal (7).
In truth, if police violence does indeed have a "systemic character," it 
is not because the "current doctrine of maintaining order is based on 
the use of weapons (8)," but because this very violence is part of the 
repressive arsenal available to the state to defend the established 
order when it deems it necessary. The use of tear gas, intended as a 
"deterrent," for lethal purposes was therefore not, in Sainte-Soline-or 
elsewhere-the initiative of some thuggish, Robocop-like thugs who had 
snapped, but rather a pre-determined and carefully planned order issued 
at the highest levels. Furthermore, the police violence of March 25, 
2023, can only be considered "exceptional" if one considers only the 
last few decades. During the Algerian War, many French soldiers 
committed far worse acts-and it was with the tacit approval of the 
authorities that they practiced torture and murder (9).
The State treated the Sainte-Soline demonstration as a war situation and 
organized its troops accordingly. Darmanin (then Minister of the 
Interior) had announced in the media the day before that "the 
French[were]going to see very violent images"-but the images 
subsequently broadcast were obviously aimed primarily at presenting 
"eco-terrorists," and not gendarmes carrying out "strictly prohibited" 
firing actions with the deliberate intention of injuring or even killing 
demonstrators.
In short, taking a narrow view of what happened that day, without 
considering the underlying economic stakes or political concerns, leads 
to focusing attention on underlings and advocating, in order to "stop 
the escalation of violence," measures that reinforce the system by 
giving it a more respectable appearance (10).
Law enforcement in France has been increasingly heavy-handed since the 
movement against the labor law (2016), environmental and social 
mobilizations-from the Yellow Vests (2018-2019) to the riots sparked by 
Nahel's death (2023), or those in Nouméa triggered by the "thawing" of 
the Caledonian electorate (2024), and including the movement against 
pension reform (2023). This is evident in the severity of the injuries 
inflicted, the number of preventive arrests, detentions, convictions, 
and so on. Working-class neighborhoods and the "territories" of former 
French colonies are the testing ground for state violence. In a Europe 
that is becoming increasingly remilitarized, police resources and arms 
orders continue to grow.
However, it is crucial to remember that social control is not solely 
achieved through police repression.
For one thing, the judicial repression of demonstrators remains a 
persistent problem. On December 3, the appeal trial of four of the nine 
spokespeople for collectives and unions accused of having "organized 
illegal demonstrations" in Sainte-Soline in 2022 and 2023 (Earth 
Uprisings, No Thanks to Reservoirs, Solidaires, the Confédération 
paysanne and the CGT) will be held in Poitiers.

On the other hand, with the rise of digital technology (and its 
offspring artificial intelligence), the surveillance of individuals in 
their every move, even their thoughts, and insidious propaganda, 
particularly via social networks, are constantly increasing in order to 
prevent any potentially problematic challenge to the capitalist system 
and to maintain the illusion of "democratic" institutions.

In conclusion, the fight against reservoirs is no more over than the 
fight against pension reform: new mega-reservoirs are planned, and 
retirement at 64 is only suspended until 2028. The public release of 
videos showing police violence in Sainte-Soline has somewhat shifted the 
stance on repression. For example, the CGT, in its statement of November 
7, spoke out against the "doctrine of maintaining order" and against 
"the criminalization of social, labor, and environmental movements." 
Nevertheless, efforts must be made to convince people that the best way 
to oppose this is not through elections or police reform, but through 
massive mobilizations against the institutions and the economic system 
they uphold.

OCL-Poitou, November 24, 2025

Notes
1. At least nine of the 15 mobilized squadrons carried out these 
shootings. Of the other six squadrons, one did not comply with the order 
to hand over its troops' videos, and another stated that it had 
destroyed its own by mistake.
2. 73 injured people had also contacted the Defender of Rights, who is 
expected to issue an opinion on police violence in Sainte-Soline in 
February 2026. See the November 5th press release, "Sainte-Soline: the 
violence was clearly on the side of the police," on the Bassines non 
merci website.
3. Yet this is precisely what Article 40 of the Code of Criminal 
Procedure stipulates for any public official who has knowledge of such 
facts. 4. Read "It is important to shed light on police violence in 
Sainte-Soline and elsewhere"
on oclibertaire.lautre.net . 5. This vehicle was supposed to evacuate 
Serge, who was in critical condition. 6. See, for example, Libération on 
November 7th. 7. See the massacre of Kanak independence activists on 
Ouvéa during Mitterrand's presidency; or the kettling of demonstrators 
instituted during Hollande's presidency. The Socialist Party's silence 
regarding the Sainte-Soline videos, as profound as that of the National 
Rally, speaks volumes. 8. According to political scientist Sebastian 
Roché in an interview with Le Monde on November 6. 9. Furthermore, 45 
Algerians sentenced to death were guillotined during the sixteen months 
Mitterrand was Minister of Justice (February 1956 - May 1957). 10. For 
La France Insoumise, which called for a commission of inquiry into 
Sainte-Soline, "it is now a matter of rebuilding our public police 
service": "reorganizing the recruitment, training, and management of 
police and gendarmerie personnel" (see the La France Insoumise website, 
November 14, 2025).

https://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4592
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