It is a weight reinforcement for the movement. Environmental activist Greta Thunberg joined a gathering of opponents of the A69 Toulouse-Castres motorway project in the south of France on Saturday, February 10, in the Tarn, under pouring rain, journalists noted. of the AFP.
The global face of the fight against global warming, wearing a fuchsia raincoat, gray hood and Palestinian keffiyeh around her neck, is part of an international delegation that arrived late in the morning in Saïx, a town located a few kilometers west of Castres where a weekend of awareness of environmental issues called “la cabanade” is to be held on Saturday and Sunday. She is surrounded by activists carrying signs reading “Stop A69” and was to participate in a press conference a little later.
An order issued by the prefect
Organizers hope to bring together 500 to 1,000 people for workshops, round tables and concerts, but the rainy and windy weather and the intervention of law enforcement in the immediate vicinity could dampen enthusiasm.
On Friday, the prefect of Tarn announced that he had “issued an order prohibiting demonstrations and gatherings” on Saturday and Sunday in Saïx, citing “risks of major disturbances to public order”.
“Gathering on a private estate, with the agreement of the owner, is not prohibited, everyone can invite whoever they want to their home,” the prefecture services told AFP on Saturday. “What happened yesterday (Friday) was that there were violent opponents who blocked the public highway with barricades, hence the strong action yesterday (Friday),” said a prefecture official, confirming the arrest on Friday of two people and seven members of the police injured, notably by stone throwing.
Protesters face police
On Saturday morning, AFP journalists saw around a hundred demonstrators facing police on a railway line a few hundred meters away, next to a wooded area which is the subject of a dispute over with an expropriation of its owner due to the construction of the highway and where activists camp in tents or in cabins built in trees.
According to the prefecture, this is an “illegal occupation” of private land. “A hundred individuals blocked the railway between Toulouse and Castres and they put obstacles on it. The individuals had set up three barricades and set one on fire, the gendarmes managed to reopen the municipal road which had been blocked” , indicated the prefecture in a message.