Collectives of opponents and the radical environmentalist movement Earth Uprisings are calling for demonstrations this Saturday in Gironde. A gathering placed under surveillance by the authorities.
Groups of opponents and the radical environmentalist movement Earth Uprisings are calling for a demonstration on Saturday in Gironde against the future high-speed rail line (LGV) in the South-West, a gathering placed under surveillance by the authorities.
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.
Around 3000 participants expected
It is there, on the borders of the Landes forest, that an undeclared demonstration with still vague contours is to take place on Saturday afternoon, presented by the organizers as a series of «jeux» against the upcoming connection between Bordeaux, Toulouse and Dax – “big useless project” of around fifteen billion euros, they denounce.
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.
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 prefect, who has banned all demonstrations in several municipalities in the Bordeaux metropolis, calls for calm and rejects the idea that a camp of opponents or ZAD (“Area to be defended”) can be installed on the future route. “The objective is not to allow a ZAD to be established.he said Friday.
“Deadly” project
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 a “investment for at least a century” which would allow “to go out” of the road the 10,000 trucks coming up from Spain every day, freeing up existing lines for freight.
But opponents – local elected officials and parliamentarians, residents, foresters or wine growers – denounce a project “mortiferous” which, according to them, would lead to the artificialization of around 5,000 hectares, 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 “daily trains” and criticize the imposition of a special tax on 2,340 municipalities close to the route for this project “pharaonic”co-financed by the State, local authorities and the European Union.
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