Despite the authorities’ ban, several thousand demonstrators gathered on the future site of the A69 which will link Castres to Toulouse. Clashes broke out between the police and environmental activists. An officer was injured and two gendarmerie vehicles set on fire.
Thousands of people against the A69 motorway. Despite the ban formulated by the authorities, several thousand demonstrators gathered in the Tarn, Saturday June 8, at the call of several local environmentalist collectives and the Uprisings of the Earth to protest against the A69 project linking the town of Castres in Toulouse. Coming from Spain, even Germany for some, there were between 4,500 and 5,000 according to the organizers, 2,500 to 3,000 according to the Tarn prefecture, reports Le Figaro.
While many couples with children participated in the gathering, others, conversely, came to fight it out. According to the prefecture, between 300 and 400 people “hooded and dressed in black” were present among the demonstrators. According to the gendarmerie, “700 to 800 radical activists” were divided into several groups to attack the police. Thus, several incidents punctuated the day. Two gendarmerie vehicles were set on fire after Molotov cocktails were fired, and an agent was injured, reports franceinfo.
“Our only weapon is our determination”
Present in large numbers to voice their opposition to the project, the demonstrators held a conference at midday. “Everything is at stake here, the A69 represents the management of a deadly policy,” explained one of the members of La Voie Est Libre, one of the many associations opposed to the new motorway route. “Our only weapon is our determination,” chanted another.
If the demonstrators were gathered on the A69 site, the protest slogans were not only aimed at the future project of the authorities, but indeed the fight against the “capitalist state” as a whole. “If we have to go illegal, we will do it because we are legitimate,” explained one of the demonstrators.