This 49-year-old man is known, in particular, for his opposition to the A69 project, after a hunger and thirst strike. Also known for perching in trees to protect them. He explains that if he fights, it is above all for his children, for their future.
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With hollow cheeks, in front of 300 of his supporters in Toulouse, Thomas Brail, already on hunger strike against the A69 project, announced on October 4, 2023, that he would also begin a thirst strike in the coming days. He warned, “a thirst strike and you have three days left to live, that’s all“He says he hopes”that in the country of human rights, we are not going to let someone die for their ideas“Last September, still against the A69 motorway between Toulouse and Castres, work on which had already started, he remained perched in a plane tree opposite the Ministry of Ecological Transition in Paris for several weeks and was evacuated, very weakened, by the police.
Climbing trees to protect them or protest against a project that he considers harmful to the environment is the trademark of Thomas Brail, 49. This arborist-climber, originally from Tarn, has put his job on hold and is dedicated to the causes he defends, whatever the price he still pays today.It took me three or four months, after the hunger strike, to get my business back up and running. Of course, there is damage, physical, psychological and financial. My salary was divided by four. My family life exploded in 2019 when I spent 28 days in front of the Ministry of Ecological Transition. In struggles, there is damage“.
Thomas Brail, with a slender figure, says he lost “eleven kilos in 40 days of hunger strike“and claims to still feel after-effects. He says he is in pain.”a little bit of body pain”. “I think I accelerated my old age“, he jokes. However, he is not complaining at all: “It’s a personal choice that was made.” “I’m lucky to have a steely mentality since I did my military service, he tells. It taught me a lot about how to surpass yourself, to surpass your body. Like an athlete, I think, when you feel that your body is tired, in fact, it’s your mind that takes over and you’re able to go much further. All that stopped with the thirst strike because I lost consciousness. And once I was in the hospital, I really stopped because I had two friends on the bridge who were in danger.“.
But the game is worth the candle, believes Thomas Brail.Today, I analyze this every day in my head. I don’t know what we should do to make ourselves heard anymore. I tried to do everything I could to try to enter into discussions with politicians every time. So sometimes, I get appointments by forceps, because when we are in front of the ministry, hanging up there and the media are downstairs, it bothers them and they receive us. But all that is over.”
“I can no longer leave my son’s future in the hands of people who are leading us straight into the wall.”
Thomas Brailto franceinfo
Thomas Brail relies on his association, the National Tree Surveillance Group (GNSA), which he founded in 2019 and has around sixty branches and a thousand members. The same year, he committed his first feat of arms. After learning that in his native town of Mazamet, nine hundred-year-old plane trees were threatened with being cut down, he set up in one of them to put pressure on them and saved seven of them. It was also for the survival of these trees that he set up in a tree for the first time in front of the Ministry of Ecological Transition.When I went on this hunger strike, this thirst strike, I received many letters from people who were distressed, who were sad and who told me, don’t do that, you have a son. But it’s because we have children that we do that. I find no pleasure in going to hang on trees. My passion is to be with my son on my property which is in nature, in the middle of the forest, with my vegetable gardens, my vegetables.“.
Regarding the A69 project, he was reminded that the work validated by the State in March 2023 has started despite the multiple appeals launched by the associations. He would like to point out that, according to him, “appeals on the merits are not processed.
“The fights on the ground are useful so that in the long term, we can achieve the same result as at Notre-Dame-des-Landes or Sivens.”
Thomas Brailto franceinfo
What about the local residents and inhabitants who support the highway project because it will change their lives?We need to get informed rather than sticking to old ideas, which are entrenched because everyone has been waiting for this for 30 years. We need to question ourselves. What are we going to feed our children if we destroy all our farmland?” asks the environmental activist.
To make himself heard, is he thinking of joining forces with environmental protection associations with more radical methods?I rub shoulders with them in the struggles, these movements – Earth Uprisings, Extinction Rebellion – and I’m not afraid to say it, I really admire their work. I want to say to all those who are alarmed: ‘Be careful because if you don’t take things in hand as a citizen, if you don’t become aware of what is happening, tomorrow, you might have your children in these struggles and you won’t even know they are there.’ II know the daughter of a politician who is dressed in black so as not to be identified and who fights on the ground“.
Thomas Brail claims to be apolitical, even though he was approached by left-wing figures who came to see him on Boulevard Saint-Germain in Paris when he was perched opposite the ministry.I was even offered to be an MEP. I won’t say which party it is, but what we do is not insignificant.“. He refused to be invested,”because it’s not my place“, probably more at ease in the trees and on the stage. Thomas Brail, who studied cinema when he was younger, went on stage for the first time this year to defend an ecological show: Praise of the forestwhich returns in September to the Gaîté Lyrique in Paris.