A gathering placed under surveillance. Groups of opponents and the radical environmentalist movement Earth Uprisings are calling for demonstrations on Saturday in Gironde against the future high-speed rail line (LGV) in the South-West.
According to a source close to law enforcement, fewer than 200 people were present Friday evening in a camp set up on private land in the small town of Lerm-et-Musset, 75 km south of Bordeaux. It is there, on the borders of the Landes forest, that an undeclared demonstration with still unclear contours is to take place on Saturday afternoon.
This mobilization called “Emergency Braking” by the organizers is presented as a series of “games” against the upcoming connection between Bordeaux, Toulouse and Dax – a “big useless project” worth around fifteen billion euros, denounce. they.
The authorities mention the possible participation of around 3,000 opponents with “several hundred violent people”. “Weapons by destination, crossbows, rifles, pétanque balls, balaclavas” were seized during upstream checks, said the prefect of Gironde, Étienne Guyot, who banned any demonstration in several municipalities in the region. Bordeaux metropolis. “The objective is not to allow a ZAD to be established,” he said on Friday.
“The demonstration Emergency braking has not been the subject of any prior declaration to the prefecture even though the association Earth Uprisings is known for its violent mode of action”, writes the prefecture in a press release, saying it fears “serious disturbances to public order, acts of blockages and sabotage, occupations or damage to sites. »
A “deadly” project
If work has started north of Toulouse, the necessary authorization for railway developments south of Bordeaux (AFSB), prior to the LGV project itself expected in 2028, remains to be delivered by the end of November. The LGV aims to connect, in 2032, Toulouse to Paris in three hours and ten minutes, saving one hour on the current route. A branch crossing the east of the Landes forest should connect Dax to Bordeaux in twenty minutes less and, one day, allow direct connections with Spain.
The President (PS) of Nouvelle-Aquitaine Alain Rousset defends an “investment for at least a century” which would make it possible to “take” off the road the 10,000 trucks coming up from Spain every day, by freeing up existing lines for freight .
But opponents – local elected officials and parliamentarians, residents, silviculturists or wine growers – denounce a “deadly” project which, according to them, would lead to the artificialization of around 5,000 ha, notably crossing the Ciron valley, a tributary of the Garonne, where there is an ancestral beech forest.
They advocate a renovation of existing lines to develop “everyday trains” and criticize the imposition of a special tax on 2,340 municipalities close to the route for this “pharaonic” project, co-financed by the State, local authorities and the European Union.
Related News :