...The French government is to shut down a climate protest group over a series of recent demonstrations citing risks to public safety, as the environmental activists called the decision “political and particularly worrying”.

Les Soulèvements de la Terre (Earth Uprising) is an umbrella group of several different environmental activist associations across France. It is seen as leading a new form of more radical climate action in Europe with high-profile direct action often aimed at big business interests, state projects and large-scale farming.

The group was part of a demonstration over a controversial irrigation project in Sainte-Soline, western France, in March that led to fierce clashes with police. Around 5,000 protesters battled with more than 3,000 police officers. Two protesters were left in a coma afterwards, while around 30 officers were injured.

The demonstrators were protesting against a giant reservoir for storing water pumped up from the underground water table, saying it would hurt smaller farmers and the ecosystem, while benefiting mainly industrial agriculture groups.

France’s Human Rights League said after the protests that “as soon as the demonstrators arrived at the reservoir site, police fired at them with weapons of war: teargas grenades, stun grenades, explosive sting-ball grenades and rubber bullets”...

The group said in a statement on Tuesday that the agricultural and food industry as well as the farmers’ union had leant directly on the government to issue a ban. In a statement, the group said: “Trying to silence the Soulèvements de la Terre is a vain attempt to break the thermometer instead of worrying about the temperature.”...