Determined to have the Castres-Toulouse motorway resumed, the Tarn senators obtained a first success this Wednesday, May 7, with the adoption in the Senate of a law allowing to make the work legal again. The regional planning commission of the upper chamber, reunited in the morning, has largely adopted the bill of centrist senators Philippe Folliot and Marie-Lise Housseau. The examination in public session, the first major meeting for these parliamentarians favorable to the A69 site, is scheduled for May 15.
The initiative, identical to the National Assembly by the deputies of Tarn Jean Tollier (Renaissance) and Philippe Bonnecarrère (non-inscribed), intends to allow parliamentarians to “Take control”, After the cancellation at the end of February by the Toulouse administrative court of the authorization to build this 53 km highway portion, resulting in the suspension of the site started in 2023. Concretely, it is a question of having the law recognized by law that this site responds to an imperative reason for major public interest (RIIPM), necessary to justify in the eyes of justice the damage to the environment by such a site.
“The mother of the battles will be played in the hemicycle (Thursday May 15), but this broad adoption is revealing of the general misunderstanding which reigns” After the suspension of the site, reacted to AFP Philippe Folliot, who hopes that this text will allow “Get out of this ubiquitous situation”. Nearly a hundred senators from several groups co -signed the bill.
In a high room which leans to the right, the adoption of the text seems to be acquired next week. Wednesday in committee, it was a formality: only a handful of elected officials on the left – environmentalists and communists – opposed the text. The socialists, divided, did not participate in the vote at this stage, learned AFP from several members of the senatorial commission.
-Part of the left is indeed concerned about an initiative coming “Go around” the judicial process. Ecologists who have long struggled against the site have also castigated it, denouncing a “Attack on the separation of powers”.
“The legislator is quite in its role, which is to reconcile environmental protection with economic and social progress. We are responding here to an emergency to prevent the dramatic consequences of a project cessation for the territory and public finances ”, swept the rapporteur horizons from the text, Franck Dhersin. The latter has also alerted to the cost of suspension of the site, “Between 170 and 180,000 euros per day” according to his estimate.
After examining the Senate and the probable adoption of the text at first reading, the macronist group in the National Assembly, together for the Republic, chose to include the text during a day reserved for its proposals, on June 2, according to sources within the parliamentary group. With the objective of winning an adoption in accordance with the senatorial version for rapid entry into force.
In parallel, the Toulouse administrative court of appeal will examine on May 21 a first appeal against the stopping of the work, aimed at obtaining the “Subsisted on execution” of the judgment of the administrative court. That is to say, the possibility, for the highway concessionaire, to continue the site awaiting the hearing on appeal filed by the State, which should not intervene until several months later.
