everywhere in France, activists stand up against “big projects”

Throughout France, they are mobilizing to protect their territories in the name of environmental protection. In Pertuis in the Vaucluse, activists have been contesting for three years the extension of an industrial zone on agricultural land. They were still 70 to demonstrate on the morning of Tuesday, November 1. 86 hectares of agricultural land could become an industrial zone by 2030. Opponents denounce a conflict of interest. The mayor is also the head of a company involved in the project.

In Landunvez, in Finistère, demonstrators protested during the month of August, against a mega pig farm accused of pollution. The livestock extension project does not pass. “Environmental problems arise from health problems”, observes an activist. They hope, by parading, to bend the prefecture. These increasingly numerous local protests are led by activists from various backgrounds. “Both traditional ecologists, in quotation marks, (…) but we also have people (…) whom we imagine a little less like people committed to ecology, who will come because it is an alteration of their living environment”describes Loup Espargilière, editor-in-chief of “Vert, le Média”.