hundreds of activists mobilized, “weapons by destination” seized | EUROtoday
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HASrlette, 84, arrived from Toulouse by bus with a bunch of scholars late within the morning. The ban on demonstrations didn’t discourage this activist at coronary heart, who has been concerned in environmental struggles for a very long time. “I was also at Notre-Dame-des-Landes and on the Sivens ZAD,” confides the outdated girl, firmly gripping her mountaineering pole.
The method march to succeed in the camp from the nationwide street, blocked by a gendarmerie cordon which filters motorists on the entrance to Puylaurens (Tarn), didn’t frighten the supposed oldest of the demonstrators. She says she was a part of a mountaineering group for a very long time, whereas actively campaigning towards GMOs in her time. Having undergone hip surgical procedure after a fall, Arlette is nonetheless cautious of her ankles when leaving the trail to enter a fallow subject which matches all the way down to Fond Basse.
Weapons seized
Marquees, sheds, collective kitchen (vegetarian) and dry bogs: this property of a farmer against the longer term motorway was remodeled in simply 24 hours into the bottom camps of the anti-A69. Several hundred seasoned opponents converged in the course of the week on this plot away from the small hilltop city of Puylaurens, midway between Castres and Toulouse on the outdated nationwide street 126. The gendarmes positioned in giant numbers on the entrance to the city let the demonstrators go who should proceed on foot after the regulatory search of the baggage.
The Tarn prefecture introduced that it had seized “weapons by destination” at first of the week. Photos of pétanque balls and different DIY devices had been supplied to the press. They had been additionally produced earlier than the Toulouse administrative courtroom, urgently seized by the Peasant Confederation which contested the bans on demonstrations taken by the prefects of Tarn and Haute-Garonne. The obligation decide rejected the request, contemplating that the route of the demonstration had not been filed throughout the regulatory deadlines.
Looking for building equipment
This didn’t cease Arlette and hundreds of decided activists from defying the ban. The Peasant Confederation mentions 3,000 folks on the base camp at noon, the prefecture solely counted a thousand. The gendarmerie helicopter may solely be aware, round 2 p.m., the coordinated exits of a number of variegated strains in tight ranks from Fond Basse.
According to a method already examined final fall throughout a earlier demonstration on the outskirts of Castres, a number of teams depart the perimeter in a joyful din, to the sound of drums and even a sound truck broadcasting techno music: the “Yellows ” for the calmer ones, the “Greens” for the athletes, the “Pinks” for the feminists and the “Blues” for the more “intrepid””, according to the leaflet distributed at the entrance to the camp.
Unsurprisingly, it is the procession of the Blues which is the first to come into contact with the vans of the same color as the mobile gendarmerie. It is also the one which had the most black blocks in the first ranks. The prefecture expected more than 200. A Palestinian flag is brandished at the forefront of the Blues.
The activists of the La Voie est libre collective, recognizable by their white t-shirts which conspicuously distinguish them from the hooded activists all dressed in black, mainly preferred to march with the Greens and the Pinks, behind the puppet of a giant bat . The first salvos of tear gas grenades were fired around 3 p.m. The most determined demonstrators were heading towards the place where the NGE group's construction machines were sheltered for the weekend.
Two gendarmerie armored vehicles deployed
“I wish them good luck if they try to approach,” says an government from the general public works firm who got here to comply with the operations from the outdated ramparts of Puylaurens. He explains that the units had been grouped collectively on Thursday to keep away from the repeated sabotage which has elevated in latest days. The storage heart is notably protected by two Centaurs, the brand new armored autos of the nationwide gendarmerie.
Work on the A69 won’t resume till Tuesday, as a result of it should take one other day to deliver the machines again to the assorted websites which stretch over greater than 50 kilometers, between Castres and Toulouse. Another lengthy weekend of spring break for the corporate, however the freeway will probably be delivered on the finish of 2025, assures the vendor.
https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/autoroute-a69-des-milliers-de-militants-mobilises-des-armes-par-destination-saisies-08-06-2024-2562392_23.php