Anti-LGV demonstration in Gironde. Tensions flare between demonstrators and police

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While a first mobilization action ‘Emergency braking’, as part of the demonstration organized in Gironde, near Lerm-et-Musset, against the Bordeaux-Toulouse LGV, tensions broke out this Saturday October 12, 2024 around 3 p.m. between demonstrators and police.

Throwing projectiles, pointing weapons…

After projectiles were thrown, a gendarmerie car, which had gotten stuck in the sand and was empty, was vandalized – broken windows, fire extinguisher powder and tags – by hooded individuals.

The procession had nevertheless started in a good-natured atmosphere, at the beginning of the afternoon, according to our journalist from Republican South-Gironde, who is on site.

Several hundred opponents of the LGV have started a walk through the woodshumming songs. Among the words intoned, we could hear: “we step over you, you pay. This is the recipe for progress. At Ciron all along, we will go for a walk. We will go see the eels” or “the construction site falls asleep and the Gironde wakes up”.

Construction of a wooden structure on the LGV route

The objective of this group responsible for this first action is to build a wooden structure on one of the passages of the LGV project.

As they arrive at the construction site, not far from Ciron, on the LGV route, a gendarmerie car is present and around ten gendarmes but they remain at a distance.

Opponents of the LGV begin their work, to music. Then, according to testimonies, a group of demonstrators wanted to push back the police. There were then stones thrown by certain demonstrators and tear gas canisters thrown by the gendarmes, who also pointed a weapon. Demonstrators shout “put down your weapon”.

No injuries, the soldiers leave in the fire vehicle

A gendarmerie car got stuck in the sand in this fire alley in the woods. The soldiers were evacuated by firefighters, who were also present. Once they left, a group of protesters damaged the car and took out what was inside.

But the group that was building the wooden structure called on these few individuals to “leave the car and not escalate the situation.” No one was hurt.

Another procession reached the place around 3:30 p.m. and the construction site resumed. Pierre, a demonstrator, reacted to these excesses: “Search of the vehicle, mask and protective glasses, jack confiscated… I am a pacifist demonstrator, I had taken my glasses because I had already been gassed during another demonstration. I just wanted to protect myself but they were confiscated. We are the victims of violence,” he believes.

The demonstrators’ water bottles were confiscated and even my bicycle helmet. Today, violence is the system that produces it.

For his part, the prefect of Gironde condemns “this unacceptable behavior towards the security and emergency forces. »

Other actions were taking place this afternoon, such as “a 15 to 30 minute sound walk, to raise awareness of the fauna and flora along the Ciron, impacted by the LGV route”. Among the demonstrators present, people of all generations, who often came with family.

In Bordeaux (Gironde), a “vélorution” has just arrived around 4 p.m. from Saint-Jean station where it is joined “by a carnival team” from the Lerm-et-Musset camp, in order to transmit the anti-LGV message to ‘in the heart of the Bordeaux metropolis.

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