Demonstration against the A69 motorway project between Castres and Toulouse, October 23, 2022 in Soual, in the Tarn (AFP / Archives / Charly TRIBALLEAU)
Hundreds of opponents of the A69 Toulouse-Castres are gradually gathering on Saturday in Saïx, in the Tarn, to protest against the motorway project which they consider contradictory with the climate emergency, during a weekend mobilization under close surveillance.
A dozen representatives of the organizers, including the local collective The way is free, Extinction Rebellion, the Peasant Confederation and the Uprisings of the Earth (SLT), demanded “the immediate stop” of the site.
During a press conference, they notably recalled their proposal for the development of the existing national road and denounced the loss of agricultural land or biodiversity that the construction of this 53 km stretch of motorway would entail.
They also deplored the price of the Toulouse-Castres trip, which could reach 17 euros round trip, “an organized social injustice”, according to a representative of the SLT.
Some 2,000 people are expected at the demonstration planned for the afternoon on the route of the motorway, as well as at the weekend’s activities, including concerts, debates and the race of soapboxes or “racing cars” going ” as slowly as possible.”
Less than a month after the violent clashes between gendarmes and demonstrators against the “megabassines” in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres), the authorities are closely monitoring this mobilization.
– Event and festive activities –
The prefect of Tarn, François-Xavier Lauch, clarified Friday evening that the 800 gendarmes and police officers mobilized will remain in the background if the demonstration is “peaceful”.
Until then, the dispute had centered in recent weeks near the village of Vendine, in Haute-Garonne, on the edge of the Tarn, where opponents had settled in tents hung on large plane trees to avoid the attack. slaughter.
For this weekend, the rally is held in Saïx, 37 km further.
On Friday, hundreds of activists (400, according to the prefect) from various regions, including New Aquitaine, Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur, set up two marquees and tents, set up tables, a bar and a canteen on an area equivalent to ten football pitches.
Saturday morning, participants discussed there over a drink under one of the tents, to the sound of jazz or rap rhythms, others set up stands, or brushed their teeth in front of a water point.
Thomas Brail, founder of the National Tree Monitoring Group (GNSA), hangs on a plane tree a tweet from Elisabeth Borne from 2020 welcoming her “sincere and just fight for the defense of trees” at the entrance to the village of Vendine, the April 10, 2023 in Haute-Garonne (AFP/Archives/Valentine CHAPUIS)
Elected officials opposed to the A69 had again denounced this project on Friday, stressing its “total contradiction with the climate emergency”.
EELV deputy Julien Bayou described as “anachronistic” this project of “the most expensive motorway in France”, Saturday on franceinfo.
But other elected officials from the Tarn support the project, which would reduce the Castres-Toulouse journey by around twenty minutes in 2025, from a duration of just over an hour today.
For its part, Atosca, private dealer of the A69, describes it as “exemplary” for the environment or employment. Regarding agricultural land, the planned footprint has been reduced from 380 to 300 hectares, according to its general manager Martial Gerlinger.
– “Discuss it, but not fight it out” –
The Ministry of Transport announced that Clément Beaune had requested in January a review of the seven motorway projects in progress, “in view of the current challenges: fight against the artificialization of the soil, reduction of CO2 emissions, but also opening up of the territories ” .
“The A69 project is no exception to this review process”, adds the ministry, while qualifying because of its state of progress: “The work has started, and a contract binding the State has been signed with the dealer”.
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, warned on Friday that “we can debate it, but not fight it out”, adding however that there is “no information which shows that in the Tarn people have a absolute desire for violence”.
The camp of opponents of the Toulouse-Castres motorway at the entrance to the village of Vendine, April 10, 2023 in Haute-Garonne (AFP/Archives/Valentine CHAPUIS)
Statements below the remarks he had made on April 5, then classifying the A69 among 42 projects “likely to give rise to extremely violent disputes”.
Opponents had accused him of “setting fire to the powder”, in a region where the memory of Rémi Fraisse remains very present.
On October 26, 2014, the body of this 21-year-old environmental activist was found on the Sivens dam site (Tarn), about sixty kilometers from Saïx, after clashes between opponents and the police.
Five months later, the project was abandoned in favor of a water reservoir reduced by half, and the government evacuated the site occupied for sixteen months by “zadists”.
© 2023 AFP
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