The prefecture announced the opening of an investigation after “several shots” in the direction of the helicopter were “heard” on the night of Friday October 11 to Saturday October 12. The aircraft flew over the area occupied by opponents of the future high-speed line.
Several thousand opponents of the future high-speed line (LGV) between Bordeaux, Toulouse and Dax 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. euros. A demonstration banned in Bordeaux and five surrounding municipalities by a prefectural decree.
However, on the night of Friday October 11 to Saturday October 12, “several shots in the direction of the gendarmerie helicopter which was carrying out a reconnaissance flight over the site occupied in South Gironde by opponents of the project, were heard”, reports the prefecture of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region and Gironde on X without giving further details on the nature of these shots.
“Neither the crew nor the aircraft were affected,” adds the prefecture, announcing that an investigation has been opened.
According to the gendarmes, who mention the presence of 800 to 1,000 people, including a “high proportion” of “hooded” activists and around twenty “S files”, it was fireworks mortars.
For its part, the collective Les Soulèvements de la Terre denounces “the big myths of the prefecture” on intolerable.”
After mobilizations bringing together a few hundred people in recent years, local opposition groups called on the radical environmentalist movement Earth Uprisings to “come off the radar at the national level”.
“It’s a struggle that is at least 30 years old… From now on, we are waiting for a strong image”, explains to AFP Pauline Dupouy, historic activist of the collective “LGV NiNa” (Neither here nor elsewhere).
According to prefectural decrees taken ahead of the mobilization, to prohibit in particular the transport of weapons, around 3,000 people, “including 10% of individuals considered very violent”, are expected this weekend in Lerm-et-Musset, 40 km south of Bordeaux.
The project launched in May
It is there, on the borders of the Landes forest, that an event with still vague contours is to take place, presented as a series of “games” by the organizers.
The future LGV, a project in the pipeline since the 1990s and relaunched in 2020, plans to connect Paris to Toulouse, via Bordeaux, in 3 hours 10 in 2032, saving one hour on the current journey.
A branch diagonally crossing the Landes forest should also serve Dax, establishing the first phase of “a major Atlantic European 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.
