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French nano debates closed after protesters cause chaos
25/01/2010
Protests during the 'Débat Public Nano' which is currently underway in France, have resulted in the public being banned from a number of debates.
Following Grenoble in December, and Rennes and Lyon in January, Marseilles saw the local debate organised by the Special Commission for Public Debate (CPDP) shut down by protestors on Tuesday. In video footage of the meeting, chairperson Jean Bergougnoux was heard to say only "good evening everybody", before protesters began clapping, whistling, shouting, throwing paper balls and raising banners with slogans such as 'Nano, it's not green, it's totalitarian'. After almost an hour of disruption, the meeting had to be cancelled.
Although earlier debates had seen these protests questioning the legitimacy of the debates, organisers attempted discussion for more than thirty minutes before retreating to a private room to webcast the debate and interact with the public through the page's forum.
In addition to discussing nanotechnology with an audience of the general public, panellists from scientific, health, and environmental organisations planned to debate topics related to nanotechnologies. Nine other debates have successfully been held in other cities since October of last year.
The Parts and Labour organisation of Grenoble (PMO) has been implicated as the organisation behind the disturbances at the meetings, although they have not officially claimed responsibility.
PMO has previously criticised the independence and neutrality of the CPDP, to which they responded with an official letter of objection, defending the CPDP and the debate’s participants against the accusations.
In a comment to Chemistry World online, Marc Sentis, director of theLasers, Plasmas and Photonic Processes laboratory in Marseilles and one of the debate’s panellists, said he decided to get involved with the debates in part because nuclear facilities were never the subject of such public discourse. 'I am 52, so I remember very well as a student, there was no possibility to debate about this important question,' he recalls. 'I didn't go to try to convince people. I still have to have some input [from the public] to know what is good or not.'
Sentis said that he understands to an extent the protesters' belief that 'everything is decided,' but says that in a democracy if you don't go and try to debate the issues, there is little chance of change.
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