A hundred farms will be impacted, supports the Peasant Confederation which also calls for the abandonment of the project.
“Today, installing a ZAD is not the idea, and we hope not to have to come to that”, assures Saturday April 22 on franceinfo Laurence Marandola, national secretary of the Peasant Confederation. The association supports the demonstration against the A69 motorway project between Toulouse and Castres, scheduled for today in the Tarn. “An anachronistic project”denounced a little earlier on franceinfo the ecologist deputy of Paris Julien Bayou who “calls for a peaceful, non-violent and festive mobilization”.
>> Demonstration against the A69 Toulouse-Castres – Follow our live.
franceinfo: Is it not a good thing to bring Castres closer to Toulouse?
Laurence Marandola: It is especially a very bad thing to artificialize and destroy hundreds of hectares of agricultural and natural land. The Confédération paysanne is always on the defense of our main working tool, which is the land.
Do you still have hope that the construction site will be stopped?
Yes of course. What has started is the felling of trees on the future route but the appeals are not over. This is the meaning of this gathering, to say that there are other possibilities to improve traffic between Castres and Toulouse, but especially not this motorway!
“For us peasants, this means the direct destruction of more than 400 hectares of agricultural and natural land. It is irreversible.”
Laurence Marandola, National Secretary of the Peasant Confederationat franceinfo
These are farms that are put at risk: of the hundred or so farms directly impacted, some people lose a few hectares, others 20 hectares, which is colossal. It’s not a highway that’s going to feed the neighbors. We ask that this project be stopped.
What are you asking instead?
Major works have been carried out, in particular around the development of the national 126, that seems to us the best alternative. In any case, in destroyed agricultural areas, the alternatives are more interesting than the construction of this highway.
Will the opponents let the work be done?
What will happen in the coming days is in the hands of the government. But the idea tomorrow is to leave the place, not to settle on these magnificent plots. Today, the installation of a ZAD is not the idea, and we hope not to have to come to that.