Earth Uprisings: Dissolution or Not? The Council of State will make its decision by the end of the week

decision The appeal against the dissolution of the environmental collective was debated during a river hearing lasting almost three hours on Tuesday

A thousand people in presence of deputies against the dissolution of Association Uprising of Earth met on 28.06.2023. — SEVGI/SIPA

The fate of the Uprisings of the Earth collective is now in the hands of the judges of the Council of State. After a river hearing of nearly three hours on Tuesday, where the environmental collective was able to plead against its dissolution, the Council of State will return “by the end of the week” his decision.

The judges of the highest administrative jurisdiction of French justice will have to answer to: two very specific questions. First, is there really an “emergency” justifying their referral end of July by the collective? And secondly, are there “serious doubts” on legality of the decree of dissolution issued by the government on June 21?

The Council of State, however, recalled that whatever she decides, she “will not presage” of the one that will be delivered on the merits, probably not before one or two years. The government blames the Earth Uprisings for “calling” to violence and “y “participate”, which they strongly contest.

“Civil disobedience” is there grounds for dissolution?

At the hearing, the lawyers of the collective, Me Antoine Lyon-Caen and Aïnoha Pascual, castigated the many “approximations” and “untruths” advanced according to them by the government.

Referring to the alleged violence, Me Pascual wondered: “why attribute the sole responsibility? to Uprisings and not to the Peasant Confederation or to Extinction Rebellion??” while the demonstrations were united in the appeal of several organizations.

“Are we also going to be dissolved on the pretext that we are calling for acts of civil disobedience?” to the judges a representative of the Right to Housing association, which has joined the procedure.

By its decision, “the Council of State has the opportunity to say whether the simple fact of calling for civil disobedience in itself justifies a legitimate ground for dissolution,” Basil Dutertre. Whatever the decision of the Council of State, it is only “the first round of a very long legal battle”, believes the one who presents himself as “one of the voices of the Earth Uprisings.

SLT acts “ go beyond  simple civil disobedience”

For the lawyers of the collective, “we cannot put on the same level slight damage, such as the fact of going to pull out lily of the valley, and dangerous acts which seriously affect the interests of the nation”.

But for the representative of the State, Pascale Leglise, director of public liberties and legal affairs at the Ministry of the Interior, who evokes “calls for burn it all down” and “”tutorials” to destroy pipelines, the acts committed by the collective “go beyond; simple civil disobedience.

As for the attribution of the facts to the this movement, it seemed obvious to him: “ to ask themselves the question of who did what because they claim it themselves.

The debates also focused on on the nature of the Earth Uprisings: the government considers them to be “a de facto grouping” while they present themselves as a “composite and horizontal movement, devoid of leaders or identified members” “Can you really dissolve a current of thought?” Me Pascual.