Julien Le Guet, antibassines and without reservations

Megaphone in hand, a torture in a plush under the beaded elbow of badges (“The underwear of the earth”, “death in tarpaulins” …), Rolled cigarette at the corner of the beak, Julien Le Guet is the face of the collective “Bassines no thank you” in Deux-Sèvres, BNM 79. A status he finds “Weird”: “I embody a collective struggle, it is not the most consistent. »» His notoriety was born one day in September 2017, almost at the same time as BNM. At the end of an exchange in the prefecture on “substitution reserves”, it was necessary to summarize the interview to the comrades and journalists who remained outside: “No one wanted to go, I took the microphone …” His verbal ease did the rest, but he did not imagine how much the battle he had just entered.

“I don’t really have a choice, I will go to the end of this struggle”

“The spokesperson requires perfect knowledge of the subject and permanent responsiveness. It is not the skills that are missing around me, but it takes availability and real freedom of speech. »» Incompatible with work (he now accommodates the RSA by noting that « [son] investment [lui] has closed the doors of many professional opportunities ”) and a quiet family life from which he says he has dismissed to keep those he loves from the risk of reprisals.

Some of his loved ones think that he is led an existential, almost sacrificial fight. He sometimes would like to get rid of this charge. “For the collective, for [lui]for [siens]. » He has never forgotten this sentence from one of his daughters: ” Dad ? Even when he’s at home, he’s not really there … “

All this to “defend” a Poitevin marsh that he says “threatened”. And of which he is not native.

It was enough for a postcard

Son of teachers, Julien Le Guet, 48, was born in Beauvais, in Picardy. He grew up in the meru zup, “Worker city of the Oise posed in the middle of the beet fields”lugged in the meetings of the Communist Party of which his parents were ardent militants.

The long holidays were immutably coastal, until the paternal finds a postcard representing the Poitevin marsh, the watch would now only pass their summers, immediately weaving ties with those of the country, first bringing in green classes the small suburbs of meru before settled there definitively. “We lived in nature, it was very inspiring for me and for what I was going to want to do with my life. »» His happiness? “A landscape, a lake, a lagoon. With a Piaf which arises a few meters. These are my moments of grace. »»

“A kind of entrenchment”

His biology studies in Amiens and then Tours confirmed to him that he preferred herbs high in the silence of libraries. “I felt like I was wasting my time. »» He who reads little (it’s less in the books than “In the diversity of other humans” that he says he draws his fulfillment) remembered Rabelais which he still quotes today: « SCience without conscience is only ruin of the soul. »»

So, like his parents a few years earlier, he in turn came to settle in the Marais where he had been doing the boatman since his 16 years. “I wanted to become René Rosoux, the naturalist of the park, he taught me that we can recognize the birds in their song. »»Julien Le Guet was 20 years old, he pinched it for the daughter of the spicler of Arçais. “I was going to buy her my chocolatines by overflowing with love for her. »» They would spend the next twenty-five years together, would have three daughters, would base the Frênaie, an eco-Lieu before the time he had found “A kind of entrenchment” After his disappointing passage to the Park du Marais Poitevin as conscientious objector: “I had shattered the reality of work in a community, with technical, financial and especially political brakes. »»

“Faven out”

The inerties and the paperwork annoy him. And, in the 2000s, when he hears “A fisherman” Venting the advent of substitution reserves, he feels an injury. “Whenever we touch the environment in general and the marsh in particular, he feels personally attacked”testifies one of his companions who knows his side “Faven out”.

“When the Mauzé basin project started, recalls Julien Le Guet, I knew that I would not do anything else. »» He sees it “An act necessary for the whole of the living” assuming “Civil disobedience” and crescendo in action: “Legal appeals, yes. And, in the field, an opposition to machines. »»

Ready to everything? His relatives had dissuaded him from starting a hunger strike and he denies any participation in sabotage actions, aware that he benefits from“Particular attention on the part of the authorities” : “Am I getting on ?, He has fun by readjusting his “eco-terrorist” marked sweatshirt. I would be very surprised not to be! »»

Brothers

Just as it displays its proximity to the Confédération Paysanne, Julien Le Guet does not hide its links with the uprisings of the earth (“A story of fusional friendships, incredible camaraderies, reciprocal recognitions”), movement that with BNM he meets twice a year in the “interludes”, these rallies where the upcoming struggles are decided. He keeps in mind that of 2021: “The project to stop megabassines became too big for us alone, the forces involved exceeded us. We explained that we were going to need help and learn to resist with other forms of actions. »» The very first scuffles followed with the police during “Invasion” from the Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon site on September 22, 2021. The “Rage Against The Bassines” would then continue to take virulence. “When all forms of resistance are swept away, it only increases determination …”

Up to Holy Surine …

The shock “Holy Soline 2”

If he refuses paternity, referring to the State and the Government the exclusive responsibility of the escalation of violence, he does not hide that “Holy Soline 2” was “A shock”. Strongly encouraged by his entourage, this March 25, 2023, to respect judicial control which, a week earlier, had forbidden him to enter the town, he had haranged the demonstrators gathered at the Vanzay base camp, climbed on an agricultural trailer alongside the other spokespersons, himself galvanized by this black and blue human tablecloth around him. And then, since the tent of “medic”, he had watched at a distance “Cataclysm” Filmed by continuous news channels. “I was afraid, it was hell. I said to myself “provided that there was not a dead man tonight” … I saw comrades arriving in blood … My big trouble was to see my daughters or the woman I like to arrive disfigured … or worse. »»

For having participated in the organization of the Holy Soline demonstrations prohibited by the prefect, Julien Le Guet was sentenced in January 2024 to one year in suspended prison, a decision which he appealed.

Did this climax remove him from the front? Is it won by a form of regret, weariness? He responds after hesitation. “I don’t really have a choice, actually. I will go to the end of this struggle. Even if some ravages are accomplished, it’s always worth fighting until the last moment. »»

Julien Le Guet rolls a cigarette. “We are on the verge of megabassine collapse”he encourages. The crackling of his lighter, some puffs, a slightly tired smile. « QI can do something else of my life would not move me … “