According to opponents, this new axis which should link Toulouse to Castres by 2025, will be reserved for well-to-do motorists and will be a major ecological disaster.
A weekend under high tension in the Tarn? The association La Voie est Libre, in collaboration with several collectives, including the Toulouse branch of Extinction Rebellion and the ecological movement Uprisings of the Earth, called for a demonstration to fight against the construction of the A69 motorway which should connect Castres to Toulouse, i.e. 54 kilometers, by 2025.
1500 to 2000 people
In a press release published on Wednesday, the prefect of Tarn announced that he had authorized this demonstration after having received a declaration from the Confédération paysanne and Attac Tarn. A green light given in order to allow “to lead a constructive dialogue for the organization of this event” and to “identify a specific course of demonstration.”
According to an intelligence note consulted earlier this week by BFMTV, between 1,500 and 2,000 people are expected on site, including around a hundred radical demonstrators.
Intelligence also expects “a more classic form” of gathering, compared to the gatherings organized at the end of March in Sainte-Soline. 8,000 people, including 1,000 radical elements, had been counted there and violent clashes had taken place there.
For their part, local organizers, in press releases, say they want a non-violent, “festive, friendly and informative” event and reject the idea of creating a ZAD, BFMTV learned. According to the information, violence is not envisaged even if “damage or isolated sabotage” could be committed.
Ecological disaster
On the route, actions are already being taken to slow down the deforestation work. Several opponents are camping in the trees to prevent their felling, while cabins have been set up nearby.
Most of them criticize a motorway project at an excessive price: a motorist will have to pay 17 euros for a time saving of only 25 minutes compared to the current journey. “No to the A69, the highway of the rich”, can we read on banners installed at the foot of the trees.
Moreover, for the opponents, this highway is also synonymous with a major ecological disaster for the local fauna and flora. “There will be threats to the water tables of the Tarn, destruction of wild animal environments, a lot of agricultural land which will be artificialized”, indicates, to BFMTV, Sandra, member of the Extinction Rébellion collective.
“We are going to have to cut around 200 alignment trees, but we are going to replant 400 in total in our project”, counterattack Martial Gerlinger, general manager of the concession Atoscain charge of the project.
As advertised The Dispatch, a first action against the project was carried out on Wednesday. Activists from the Last Renovation collective sprayed the facade of the Occitanie regional council with orange paint.
“What we are doing is our civic duty,” concludes an activist who took part in the action.
At the beginning of the year, France 3 Regions reported that several vehicles had been set on fire on the night of February 9 within a company in Muret in charge of the work. The claim, sent by email to several media, highlighted an act “against the Toulouse-Castres motorway.”
