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France’s State Council overturns ban on radical climate group

France's top administrative court on Thursday struck down a government ban on an activist climate group that clashed with police in a battle that left two people in a coma.

Published: 9 November 2023 17:58 CET

France's State Council overturns ban on radical climate group

Demonstrators hold placards reading "We are the Uprisings" during a protest against the dissolution of Soulevements de la Terre (Uprisings of the Earth) in front on the France's Conseil d'Etat. Photo by Stefano RELLANDINI / AFP

An estimated 6,000 protesters took part in the March 25th demonstration over plans to build one of a series of new reservoirs near Sainte-Soline in western France.

The protest quickly turned into pitched battles with the around 3,000 police officers deployed to defend the site.

Two protesters spent several weeks in a coma, while around 30 officers were injured. Rights groups accused the police of excessive force.

President Emmanuel Macron’s government later shut down the Soulèvements de la Terre (Uprisings of the Earth) coalition, which was behind the protests, saying it incited violence by encouraging demonstrators to come equipped with metal bars and pétanque balls.

But the Conseil d’Etat (State Council) ruling on an appeal brought by SLT, struck out the June dissolution.

The council, which rules on the legality of decisions taken by the government and public bodies, ruled that “no incitement to violence against people could be blamed on Uprisings of the Earth”.

While adding that the group had engaged in “provocations and violence involving property”, it said the decision by Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin to ban SLT was not “suitable, necessary or proportional to the gravity of the disruption likely to be caused to public order”.

SLT is part of a new wave of more radical climate activist groups, including Extinction Rebellion, that say direct action is needed in response to insufficient efforts to combat climate change.

The Council said the decision to shut down a group or association was an infringement of the freedom of association.

Such a move was only justified if the group incited violence against people or property, sought to excuse violent actions or failed to moderate incitement to violence on social networks, it said.

SLT welcomed its unbanning on X, formerly Twitter, telling Darmanin to “take that!”.

The Council did however uphold the minister’s decision to use new powers to outlaw three other groups: one from the far right, one from the far left and another accused of spreading hatred in the name of fighting anti-Muslim sentiment.

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Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.