The Gironde prefecture fears “serious disturbances to public order” this weekend during the actions planned in the South-West against an LGV project, because of the presence of “several hundred radical protesters”.
Le Figaro Bordeaux
He doesn’t want to take any risks. This Thursday, the prefect of Gironde, Étienne Guyot, decided to ban the undeclared demonstration planned for this weekend in Gironde, organized by the collective LGV Non merci and the Uprisings of the Earth (SDT). During this “emergency braking against South-West LGVs”the SDT have in fact planned a weekend of actions “colorful” in Gironde, explaining that “all means are good and all forces are welcome to definitively prevent this aberration from seeing the light of day”.
The state representative explains that “according to initial estimates, several thousand participants could potentially be present this weekend in South Gironde, including several hundred radical protesters”which could “causing serious disturbances to public order, acts of blockages and sabotage, occupations or damage to sites”. The prefecture therefore issued an order prohibiting “any demonstration, gathering or protest gathering” in several Gironde municipalities, including Bordeaux, Bègles, Cadaujac and Saint-Médard-d’Eyrans.
Before the ax of this administrative ban falls, which will be accompanied by “all measures to ensure public order” including the use of drones, several events were planned in the South-West from Friday to Sunday, including a conference, cross-stories, a “big game against LGVs” as well as “surprise games” during the day of Saturday, “in a large group or small group”. The organizers also specified in this regard that“there will be varying levels of physical and legal commitment”seeming to corroborate the concerns of the prefecture. A “Great Bordeaux Velorution” should also take place.
A 14.3 billion euro project that divides
Himself a former prefect coordinator of the Grand Sud-Ouest railway project (GPSO), in which this contested LGV project is part, Étienne Guyot recalls that the GPSO “is a project of European interest, identified in the mobility orientation law and declared of public utility”. The project has also just obtained a favorable opinion from a commission of inquiry – despite 92% of negative opinions collected – and the president of the GPSO Society, the socialist Alain Rousset, now judges that “the project becomes a construction site”because the developments south of Bordeaux should soon be able to begin.
Many residents, local elected officials and parliamentarians from both the right and the left are, however, still up in arms against this 14.3 billion euro project, believing that it is a waste of public money to destroy 5,000 hectares of land. natural spaces, while it would be possible to modernize existing railway lines for several billion less. At the end of September, five of these parliamentarians from different political parties wrote to the Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, asking him to commission the National Commission for Public Debate – which he instigated in 1995 – to organize a referendum on this divisive subject. .
