Several thousand opponents of the project are announced in Gironde this Saturday, October 12 to protest against a “pharaonic” project, launched in the spring and estimated at around fifteen billion euros. The demonstration, which was not declared to the prefecture, was banned by the authorities.
Make some noise before it’s too late. After mobilizations bringing together a few hundred people in recent years, local opposition groups called on the radical environmentalist movement Earth Uprisings to “going off the radar at the national level”. “It’s a struggle that’s at least 30 years old… From now on, we’re waiting for a strong image,” explains to AFP Pauline Dupouy, historic activist of the collective “LGV NiNa” (for “Neither here nor elsewhere”).
According to prefectural decrees taken ahead of the mobilization, in particular to prohibit the transport of weapons, around 3,000 people, “including 10% of individuals considered very violent”, are expected this weekend of October 12 and 13 in Lerm-et-Musset, 70 kilometers south of Bordeaux. It is there, on the borders of the Landes forest, that a demonstration with still vague contours is to take place, presented as a series of «jeux» by the organizers.
Thursday evening, the Gironde prefecture issued a new decree prohibiting between Friday and Monday “any demonstration, gathering or protest gathering” in Bordeaux and in five other surrounding municipalities, located several tens of kilometers from the scene of the event. Contacted by Liberation, the prefecture confirms the ban on all gatherings, including in Lerm-et-Musset, the demonstration having not been the subject of any prior declaration.
Paris-Toulouse in 3 hours 10 minutes
The future high-speed line (LGV), a project in the works since the 1980s and relaunched in 2021, provides for the extension of the Paris-Bordeaux LGV over two sections, Toulouse and Dax. The journey between Bordeaux and Dax would be shortened by twenty-two minutes and that between Bordeaux and Toulouse by one hour. The Paris-Toulouse route would thus be reduced in 2032 to three hours and ten minutes, i.e. one hour less than currently.
The branch crossing diagonally through the Landes forest towards Dax would also establish the first phase “of a great European Atlantic corridor” to allow, later, the creation of direct high-speed connections with Spain and Portugal. The project, launched in May north of Toulouse, is expected to cost a minimum of 14.3 billion euros, financed by the State, local authorities and the European Union.
“An investment for at least a century”, justifies the president of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region Alain Rousset (PS). He is betting on the work to “improve everyday trains” – TER and future RER in metropolises – by doubling the tracks, “decongest our roads invaded by trucks” by freeing up slots for freight, and “open up” the territory by creating new stations. For the mayor of Mont-de-Marsan, Charles Dayot (center-right), the new line “would open the field of possibilities”, particularly for young people, by putting an end to a situation “curled up” railway cul-de-sac in the Landes prefecture.
A project “made for metropolises and the egos of elected officials”
More “a train passing at 320 km/h does not open up access”, cut Jacqueline Lartigue, mayor of Bernos-Beaulac (1,200 inhabitants), village at the heart of the future “Y” junction which will connect Bordeaux, Toulouse and Spain. She denounces “a pharaonic project”, “made for metropolises and the ego of the great elected officials». The councilor, at the head of a collective of local elected officials including “anger comes from afar”, pleads, just like the environmentalist mayor of Bordeaux Pierre Hurmic, for “a renovation of existing lines” and supports a struggle by “legal channels”, citing recent transpartisan initiatives from Girondin parliamentarians.
Four of them (two rebels, an environmentalist and a Modem) demanded from the Prime Minister the holding of a local referendum on the project, and eight (from LFI to LR) denounced “a denial of democracy” after the validation by the State of the public commission of inquiry on the Bordeaux part of the project. This gave a favorable opinion which, according to these parliamentarians, goes against the vast majority of the contributions expressed. If the LGV is widely supported in Occitanie, a handful of communities in Nouvelle-Aquitaine have given up financing it or voted for a lower contribution than expected.
In addition to environmentalist or citizen movements, foresters from the South-West, winegrowers from Sauternes and hunters have expressed their serious concerns about a construction site that is coming “enclose the forest” et “damage ecosystems”, without, however, calling for demonstrations. Long-time opposition elected officials, contacted by AFP, say for their part that they were not invited to this “first” anti-LGV mobilization of the Earth Uprisings. A gathering, at the initiative of local collectives, is also scheduled for the end of March.
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