On Friday, August 11, the interim relief judge for the Conseil d'Etat (highest administrative court) suspended the dissolution of climate activist group Soulèvements de la Terre ("Uprisings of the Earth," SLT), which had been decreed by the Council of Ministers on June 21. At the time, the French government denounced the "use of violence" by members of the group.
"Under the claim of defending the preservation of the environment," SLT "encourages sabotage and material damage, including through violence," wrote the executive in the dissolution decree, listing a series of actions by the group that had led to "material destruction" and "physical aggression against the forces of law and order."
The procedure had been initiated at the end of March, a few days after violent clashes between gendarmes and opponents of a massive water reserve project in Sainte-Soline (western France).
But for the Conseil d'Etat, "there is serious doubt regarding the characterization of provocation to violent acts against persons and property used by the dissolution decree," which justifies the suspension of the group's dissolution.
"It's a great victory for freedom and ecology!" wrote Aïnoha Pascual, one of the group's lawyers, on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday.
SLT said on Tuesday that the interim ruling was only "the first round in a very long legal battle," prior to the interim hearing. The Conseil d'Etat's response to the summary proceedings does not address the merits of the case, and in no way anticipates the final decision on the merits of the dissolution.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.