Environmental activists have taken over trees in the forest between Seignosse and Hossegor, in the Landes, to protest against the planned interconnection of a very high voltage (THT) line between France and Spain, in Soorts-Hossegor, on January 8, 2025. GUILLAUME FAUVEAU/HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
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Perched in trees or posted in front of construction equipment. In the Landes, opponents of the construction of a 400,000 volt electrical line between Spain and France prevented the progress of the work this Monday, January 13.
Costing more than 3 billion euros, this very high voltage (THT) interconnection built by RTE and Red Eléctrica must connect two electrical substations over 400 kilometers, one near Bordeaux and the other near Bilbao in Spain.
The protesters, mobilized since 2021, are demanding a revision of the route and are trying to delay the progress of the work started in November 2023 as much as possible.
Cables under cycle paths and wooded areas
Around twenty of them gathered this Monday in the parking lot of a supermarket in Hossegor, on the edge of the forest, where RTE must bury cables of this line with the route shared between the ocean and the mainland.
To avoid the Capbreton gouf, an impassable underwater canyon with a depth of 4,500 meters, the line crosses the basement of five Landes municipalities such as Hossegor and Capbreton, in a natural environment, under cycle paths or wooded areas, nearby campsites and residential areas.
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Opponents are campaigning for a third option to be evaluated: following the A63 motorway to the Spanish border.
“Ecocidal” project
A handful of them, baptized “squirrels” like the anti-A69 activists in Occitanie, have been installed since the beginning of January at a height of 5 meters on a wooden platform in the pine forest, where the route must pass.
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Among them, “Kiwi”, 32 years old, believes that this work constitutes “a democratic denial” et “a strong passage” after the rejection of the project by a large majority of participants in the public inquiry carried out in 2021-2022, and concluded with a favorable opinion from the investigating commissioners.
On December 25, the collective of opposition associations requested “an immediate moratorium” on this project described as“ecocidal”in an open letter addressed to the Landes prefecture as well as to Prime Minister François Bayrou.
For the Landes prefecture, the route of this line which is part “in energy and climate issues” takes a terrestrial route ” modest “with burial planned for “minimize all impacts, including landscape impacts”. Requested by AFP, RTE did not respond.
By Le Nouvel Obs with AFP
