Demonstrators against the LGV Lyon-Turin line, March 7, 2015 in Saint Michel-de-Maurienne, in Savoie (AFP/Archives/JEAN-PIERRE CLATOT)
The administrative court of Grenoble rejected on Friday the request of the organizers of a large demonstration planned for Saturday against the construction site of the high-speed rail line Lyon-Turin contesting the prohibition order taken by the prefecture of Savoie.
The request filed by the Greens (EELV), ATTAC Savoie and the association Living and acting in Maurienne was rejected because the “configuration of the route (…) does not guarantee (…) the safety” of the procession, but also because of the “risk of intrusion of particularly sensitive sites” and the possible presence of “radical demonstrators”, according to the order published on the site of the court seized in summary proceedings.
“The right to demonstrate is increasingly restricted in France,” reacted to AFP the lawyer for the applicants, Me Arie Alimi.
He denounced a “ban at the last moment”, taken by the prefecture of Savoie on Thursday, “while the event has already started, that the demonstrators are already there”, in this valley famous for its ski resorts, near the Italian border.
Without waiting for the result of the appeals, the demonstrators indeed began Friday evening to set up their camp in the meadows, in the lower part of the Maurienne valley, on land loaned by the municipality of La Chapelle, outside the area of prohibition drawn up by the authorities.
This court decision “aims to continue the criminalization of the environmental movement initiated by the Minister of the Interior for some time,” said Mr. Alimi.
In its order, the court considers in particular that “the configuration of the route which involves difficulties for the circulation of emergency and security vehicles does not guarantee, as the prefect had mentioned (…) the sufficient security of a procession whose number can be estimated at 3000 people”.
“The ban is part of a particular context where radical movements are not to be excluded, the prefect of Savoy reporting (…) the possible presence of 400 radical demonstrators whose behavior is likely to compromise the peaceful nature of the demonstration and to create a risk of confrontation with the sympathizers of the project”, still considers the court.
The “Stop Lyon-Turin” gathering aims to denounce the ecological impacts, particularly on water, of this “titanic railway” project involving the drilling of galleries through the Alpine massifs. According to environmental activists, the work will “destroy the mountain for the economic interests of the few, to the detriment of the living”.
The case initiated by Brussels in 1992 sparked renewed tension between supporters and opponents when the French Ministry of Transport began to quantify the cost of the 150 km of access roads to the tunnel being dug under the Alps.
© 2023 AFP
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