It was with a voice worn by thirty-six days of hunger strike that Thomas Brail announced his decision. “I am going on a thirst strike on Monday at 2 p.m.”declared, Wednesday October 4 in the early evening, in Toulouse, the activist committed against the motorway project to connect Castres to Toulouse, the A69, in front of a few hundred supporters. “I am worn out, tired of fighting, I have a little boy who is 6 years old, I have no desire to die, but I am issuing an ultimatum to our leaders. We’ll see if they’re going to let anyone die today.”explained this 48-year-old man, who occupied a plane tree in front of the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, in Paris, for ten days, before being evicted by the police on September 24.
Following him, there are several, engaged in this fight, to have announced that they wanted to start thirst strikes. Around fifteen activists are on hunger strike in Toulouse and other cities, and even in Burkina Faso, where members of the National Tree Surveillance Group joined the movement created by Thomas Brail in 2019.
Before joining the Toulouse region on Thursday, and returning to roost in a plane tree on the route of the A69, the militant climber met, Tuesday morning, the (socialist) president of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga, who defends the project, as well as the chief of staff of the minister responsible for transport, Clément Beaune, to remind them of the opponents’ request: the cessation of work and the felling of trees in progress, a moratorium to study in particular alternative solutions to the current project. Almost thirty years old, this provides for the transformation of the current N 126 into a toll motorway, at a rate of 17 euros per round trip over 53 kilometers linking Castres to Toulouse, a concession being granted to the company Atosca for commissioning in 2025. The cost is estimated at 450 million euros, of which 23 million are covered by public finances.
The “ultimate weapon”
“The project, under the responsibility of the State, is in progress, and the work is very advanced (nearly 40% of the funds committed). There is no other credible alternative to open up the 150,000 inhabitants of the south of Tarn, who are largely in favor of the project”, responded Wednesday in a press release, Carole Delga, refusing any stoppage of work. Comments which led to the decision to trigger “this ultimate weapon” what is the thirst strike, according to Thomas Brail.
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