On September 14, Thomas Brail, a native of Tarn, took up residence at 246 boulevard Saint-Germain in Paris, just opposite the headquarters of the Ministry of Ecological Transition. Sitting on his harness, it is in the heart of the foliage of a plane tree that the environmental activist continues a hunger strike started on August 31 to denounce the construction of the A69 motorway which will link Toulouse to Castres.
But when he ended up obtaining an interview at the Ministry of Transport on September 19, Clément Beaune rejected him. A position which, a week later, does not seem to have moved an inch. “When there are decisions that are made, we apply them”, and “that goes for the A69”, which “has been the subject of very numerous political and judicial decisions”, defended Clément Beaune on the microphone from France Inter this Tuesday, September 26.
Continued construction of the A69
However, since its genesis, the A69, work on which began last March, has continued to arouse the ire of opposition parties, and concentrates the anger of civil society actors from all ranks. While the leader of the Insoumis in the National Assembly Mathilde Panot denounces an “ecocidal” project, the environmentalist MEP Karima Delli criticizes an “ecological, economic and democratic aberration”. Many public figures, including the actress Mélanie Laurent, the director and writer Cyril Dion and the mathematician Cédric Villani, also showed their support for Thomas Brail who was dislodged from the plane tree this Sunday by a team of firefighters. But just yesterday, 300 people gathered in front of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, once again demanding the abandonment of work on this 53-kilometer portion of the A69 motorway.
Although the A69 “is the most advanced” of the motorway projects in progress, the minister’s posture seems all the more surprising as it overlaps with his announcement to stop “several projects”. Always on time when it comes to tweeting, MP Sandrine Rousseau notably reacted this Tuesday morning on ecological”, in reference to the presentation of the main axes of ecological planning by Emmanuel Macron the day before.
But for the minister, who prides himself on being at the helm of a “coherent” policy, one does not seem to prevent the other. Last spring, when several hit operations had been organized, Clément Beaune committed to “reducing the environmental impacts” of motorway construction. Statements which, according to him, come in the wake of “courageous decisions to stop”. The fact remains that the person concerned has not yet given any details on the projects he is preparing to bury.
Controversial projects throughout France
It must be said that the A69 is far from being the only motorway construction to crystallize tensions because of its footprint on the environment and biodiversity. Hence this impression of a government that is walking on eggshells. While four projects are still on track – the A69 linking Toulouse-Castres, the Rouen bypass (A133 and A134), the A154 to complete the Rouen-Orléans transverse axis, and the A412 providing a short connection between Machilly and Thonon-les-Bains in Haute-Savoie – none manage to reach consensus.
In Rouen, the different parties recently engaged in a battle of numbers. While a mobilization of elected officials in favor of the construction of the eastern bypass of the city brought together 1,000 people in September, the Collective No to the A133-A134 boasts of having collected more than 3,000 signatures. Opposed to the project since 2020, socialist mayor Nicolas Mayer Rossignol highlights in particular the results of a survey commissioned from Ifop, which reveals that 56% of the metropolis’s inhabitants are opposed to the project. “The residents understood that this story was a scam because it had a toll,” explained the former candidate for head of the Socialist Party to our colleagues at Paris-Normandy early September. And to add: “The vast majority of people are hostile to the Eastern bypass project. I defended this project in 2013, 2014. I changed my mind [en 2020] because honestly I think that it is one of those projects, when we look at the balance between the advantages, the disadvantages and the cost, and in particular the fact that there is a toll, which are frankly no longer a priority. Our priority is the train.”
Same story among several parliamentarians who had to vote last June on a text aimed at accelerating the construction of the 16.5 kilometer motorway section between Machilly and Thonon-les-Bains. The ecologist, Julie Laernoes, had castigated a “criminal” project for the climate with “devastations” for “wetlands” and “protected species”. And although the bill was validated by 149 votes against 50, the Savoie deputy Jean-François Coulomme announced that he intended to seize the Constitutional Council to contest the text.
And opposition to the motorway section is not limited to elected officials. Many civil society actors have also taken a stand against what they denounce “as a project from another time”. First and foremost, the farmers’ unions. Ulcerated by the validation of the text, the Peasant Confederation criticizes a project that is “destructive of agricultural and natural spaces, of the climate, and what is more, incapable of responding to the transport issues supposed to justify it”. And while the agricultural land market in Haute-Savoie has been slipping for several years, the trade union confederation had already tried to sound the alarm in a press release published in July 2018: “The agricultural areas cultivated by 30 farms will be affected by the project for around fifty hectares directly lost”.
Abandonments for around fifteen years
If by announcing the cessation of the construction of motorways, Clément Beaune welcomes a great first in France, several projects have already fallen by the wayside over the last fifteen years. Among which, the A24 between Amiens and Lille, the extension of the A48 to the east of Lyon, or the A51 in the Alps or the A831 in Charente-Maritime. A direct consequence of the Grenelle de l’environnement (2007-2009) which, it is said, would have “changed the situation”.
At the end of 2022, six months after taking office, Clément Beaune himself has already announced a moratorium on the widening of the A46 south of Lyon, still at the project stage. Long requested by economic players in the region, the initiative consisted of building a third traffic lane over a 16.5 kilometer section between the Communay service areas and the Saint-Priest Center broadcaster. A stillborn project which, like others, quickly gained unanimous support, bringing together all the elected officials of the municipalities concerned by the extension. It’s well known that if you can’t unite for someone, you have to come together against something.