The first day of the weekend of mobilization against the high-speed line (LGV) project between Bordeaux-Toulouse was held, Saturday October 12, in Lerm-et-Musset, in the south of Gironde, 75 kilometers away. of Bordeaux, in a sometimes tense atmosphere but without major incident. Ahead of this unauthorized gathering, which brought together nearly 1,000 people, the prefecture of Gironde had reported the presence of a large number of hooded participants and around twenty people “on S files”.
A single incident ultimately punctuated this day launched by around twenty collectives, including Les Soulèvements de la Terre. In the middle of the afternoon, a handful of hooded individuals dressed in black approached the few gendarmes positioned nearby, whose vehicle was mired in the sand. Tear gas is fired, then a grenade, the gendarmes finally abandon their vehicle which is then violently damaged.
Apart from this event, the day was marked by a one and a half hour hike in the forest, punctuated by songs and slogans chanted throughout the route. On arrival, activists built and installed a wooden “observation lookout”, several meters high, in the heart of the Ciron forest, on the future route of the high-speed line.
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At the foot of the installation, Xiko, 78 years old (who did not wish to give his name) explains that he traveled from the Basque Country to support the movement. He lives in Arcangues, near Bayonne, where the second section of the extension: the Toulouse-Dax line. “I have the route of the LGV in my living room, he says. I have been interested in it for thirty years, I am part of associations which campaign against the project. » If he concedes that he does not yet “nothing official received” on a potential expropriation, he says it bluntly: “The start of work is planned for 2040. I will be dead, but it doesn’t matter, I’m still fighting. » This project, for him, “is of no use. To save what, fifteen, twenty minutes from Bordeaux to Hendaye? For what? »
A “completely inept” project
Philippe Barbedienne, president of Sepanso Gironde, an environmental defense association, has also been fighting against this project for twenty years. He judges him “completely inept. We are told that we are going to waste more than 15 billion euros to carry out this project, precisely at a time when France is drowning in debt.” He says he is deeply attached to this country of Ciron, land of his mother and his ancestors, which is why he lent his 2.5 hectares of land for this weekend of mobilization. “We want to preserve it. And currently, all the most detestable projects are being imposed on us: we have already had the gas pipelines, a threat of a very high voltage line which should pass here, the useless A65 motorway which could have been done differently…”
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