environmental mobilization against a motorway project between Toulouse and Castres

Fifty-three kilometers of discord. The A69 motorway project, which should link Castres to Toulouse, should open in 2025. Opponents of this motorway denounce a project thought out before awareness of the impact of climate change, according to its opponents. They also evoke the artificialization of 350 hectares of agricultural land and the cutting of hundreds of trees, including century-old plane trees. This weekend, they are therefore organizing a demonstration along the route of this highway.

“ This project can no longer see the light of day »

Several thousand demonstrators are expected for a mobilization which kicked off around 12 p.m. (French time) for a rally announced as festive, popular and family-friendly by its organizers. At midday, there were in particular speeches by the organizers, the Confédération paysanne, the Uprisings of the Earth movements or even Extinction Rebellion against this project “ anachronistic “. Local elected officials or even the deputy Europe Écologie Les Verts (EELV), Sandrine Rousseau were also present. The protest is intended to be peaceful, insists Thomas Brail, one of the project’s critics.

“ Here, there must be a project which is going to be quite disastrous, and which is completely anachronistic today. This is why we are all mobilized to say that today, this project can no longer see the light of day. This is not a ZAD [zone à défendre, NDLR], we call it camping des Platanes here. We will be really there so that things go well, that it remains festive. As I say, I have no flint in my pocket. Flint against flint, it makes sparks. I don’t have that philosophy. My philosophy is dialogue, and pedagogy, and to exchangepoints out Thomas Brail. And until the end, I will ask that we can meet the elected officials and have a round table, and talk, damn it! Let’s talk together. »

For his part, the Minister of the Interior fears scuffles. After clashes between gendarmes and environmental demonstrators at the end of March in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres), the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin ranked the A69 among the 42 projects likely to give rise to extremely violent disputes “. Faced with the demonstrators, the authorities mobilized 800 CRS and gendarmes to “ ensure the security of the gathering and respond to any unlawful acts “.

” We must respect the decisions that have been made »

Jean Terlier, Macronist deputy and supporter of the project, also hopes that the demonstration will be calm. He remembers the protest against a dam in Sivens in the department which ended in the death of Rémi Fraisse, a young environmental activist, in 2014.

“ I think that we are, for the moment, not at all in the same configurations as in Sainte-Soline. I say very clearly that the Tarnais and the Tarnaises would no longer tolerate a new ZAD on their territory. We all remember what happened in Sivens. I think it would be unthinkable that we could relive the same episode. There is once again, a project that goes back twenty years, authorizations with declarations of public utilityrecalls Jean Terlier. And I think that it is also also necessary, when one is in a State of law, that one considers on the side of the opponents that one must respect the decisions which have been taken, and this, in spite of the disputes which have completely the right to exist. »

Nobody wants to see this mobilization degenerate under high surveillance. The prefect of Tarn, François-Xavier Lauch, specified Friday evening that the 800 gendarmes and police officers mobilized will remain in the background if the demonstration is “ peaceful “.

► To listen also: Report France – Perched in a plane tree to oppose the construction of the A69