Left-wing parties and environmental activists denounced Monday the “repression” carried out against anti-GMO activists, especially last weekend in Solomiac, in the Gers.
José Bové and six other demonstrators were arrested Sunday evening by the police during a demonstration, unceremoniously dispersed by the police, against genetically modified organisms.
The demonstrators, who were about 500, had gathered at the call of the collective “Reapers of GMOs” to mow a field of transgenic corn. Several of them were injured.
"The proceedings instituted mark both the repressive disproportion which this government has become accustomed to and the arbitrariness which it continues to demonstrate," said the Human Rights League in a press release.
For the LDH, "these plantations or trials were not preceded by any democratic debate and were imposed, including on neighboring farmers".
She therefore calls on the judicial institution, which has instituted proceedings against many "voluntary mowers", including the former spokesperson for the Peasant Confederation José Bové and the deputy Vert Noël Mamère, "not to give in to the wishes of the government. ".
The Communist Party, which calls for a moratorium on outdoor GMO cultivation, has also "condemned the harsh crackdown" against anti-GMO activists.
“These men and women defend public health by refusing to cultivate GMOs in an open environment. Basically, they are asking for the strict application of the precautionary principle, ”he wrote.
On the side of environmentalists, Greenpeace denounced the “unprecedented repression carried out by the police” in the Gers, without however calling for the mowing of fields where GMOs are cultivated.
The organization prefers to focus its action on the publication of lists of products containing GMOs in order to encourage the French not to consume them and to "break the market".
The Peasant Confederation also condemned “this totally disproportionate debauchery of police violence”.
“While 80% of the population declare themselves against GMOs, the state only opposes violence and repression to their concerns. He chose to protect the financial interests of biotech companies against the wishes of the population“, She declares.