More than twenty proceedings have been filed against the expressway under construction, which is to connect Toulouse to Castres. Activists hope to win their case before the end of the year.
“No macadam”. Opponents of the A69 motorway project, which will link Castres to Toulouse, are mobilizing again on Saturday June 8. They decided to defy the Minister of the Interior, who on Tuesday requested a ban on this demonstration at the Tarn prefecture. More than sixty organizations, including Les Uprisings of the Earth, Extinction Rebellion Toulouse and La Voie est libre, denounce a project “ecocidal”contrary to the preservation of biodiversity and the objective of carbon neutrality.
Like the demonstrations which follow one another, the opponents have filed a plethora of legal appeals against the infrastructure, which must come out of the ground in 2025. Referrals, appeals for the cancellation of the project, criminal complaints… More than twenty legal actions have been carried out since the launch of the project, according to a document from the La Voie est libre collective consulted by franceinfo. Where are these procedures? How many have been rejected and which are still in progress? Franceinfo takes stock of the legal battle against the A69.
Interim appeals were unsuccessful
Since the launch of the work in March 2023, around twenty associations have filed nine summary appeals before the administrative court, according to the Tarn prefecture. This emergency procedure allows the judge to immediately suspend the execution of an administrative decision (in this case, the authorization of works) if there is doubt about its legality. In their appeals, opponents denounced several points including the felling of trees along the route, the destruction of protected species and their habitat or the use of drones for site surveillance.
A futile operation, because the administrative court of Toulouse rejected all these requests for interim relief, just like the Council of State when it was referred to it as a last resort. The authorities considered “that none of the arguments invoked by the applicants was likely to give rise to serious doubt about the legality of the order” prefectural.
Gilles Garric, member of La Voie est libre, recognizes that “in this type of case, the summary procedure is unlikely to work, because it is the judgment of the obvious”. “If there is an elephant in a china shop, the judge immediately sees that there is a gross error in the procedure, so he suspends the authorization act”illustrates Julien Bétaille, lecturer in public law at the University of Toulouse 1 and specialist in environmental law. “But if we have to debate the details of the law, he’s not going to take any risks.”
A judgment on the merits expected before the end of the year
Associations have also filed appeals on the merits, that is to say that beyond the suspension of work, they hope for the annulment of the prefectural decision authorizing the launch of the project, and therefore the definitive halt of the construction site. The administrative judge must study these requests before the end of the year, according to La Voie est libre. “This is good news, because the judgment will come fairly quickly,” explains Gilles Garric. This also means that the hearing will be held before the end of the work, which must last until the end of 2025.
“We will therefore have one more argument to say that it is not too late.”
Gilles Garric, member of the La Voie est libre collectiveat franceinfo
In the sights of the associations: the environmental authorization granted by the authorities to Atosca, the company in charge of the work. “This procedure obliges the company to study the effects of its project on the environment before its implementation”explains Julien Bétaille.
The applicants consider, among other things, that no alternative to the motorway has been studied and accuse the public survey, carried out upstream, of being biased. “Only the municipalities located on the route gave their opinion, while the project will have a broader impact on the territory. The rest of the population did not have the time or the necessary information to comment”considers Gilles Garric.
Accusations that Maxime-Yasser Abdoulhoussen, director of the A69 project at the Tarn prefecture, brushes aside: “A public inquiry is a very structured consultation exercise. We followed the required operating procedure and the commission of inquiry ensured that the consultation conditions were satisfactory.” Regarding the study of other options at the A69 motorway, the manager again denies having ignored this part, specifying that in 2021, “the Council of State considered that the study was sufficient”.
An appeal against the repression of opponents rejected
Rallies in recent months against the project have been the scene of clashes between demonstrators and police. In response, six groups, for example, filed a complaint in mid-February for deliberately endangering the lives of others after the intervention of the police in the zone to be defended (ZAD) of Crem’arbre.
But on this ground, opponents of the A69 have already suffered a setback before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in March: the court rejected their request against the French state, while they were protesting against the methods used by the police to dislodge them from trees in the Tarn.
Complaints for environmental damage
Criminal complaints to denounce the project’s environmental damage are added to the files already in progress. In mid-March, La Voie est libre filed a complaint for destruction of protected species. “We still have no news from the Toulouse public prosecutor’s office”, assures the collective. Three other environmental associations have, for their part, filed a complaint for water pollution on the construction site. According to them, Atosca pollutes groundwater through its management of rainwater and groundwater.
In addition to all these legal actions, there is a report to the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) for illegal taking of interest, a complaint to the European Commission for non-compliance with France’s commitments on greenhouse gas emissions and an appeal graceful on the concession contract with Atosca.
Why multiply these appeals? “These are the only tools we can continue to userecognizes Claire Dujardin, one of the lawyers of the collectives, to France 3. We try to note all the infractions, not to let incriminating evidence slip through to demonstrate the illegality of the construction site.” For his part, Maxime-Yasser Abdoulhoussen ensures that he respects the right to appeal and believes that it “must take into account the disputes”before insisting: “A road project may seem contradictory in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. But in the meantime, we are going to need transport infrastructure.”