why the tension around this weekend’s mobilization has gone up a notch

The demonstration against the extension of this infrastructure between Castres and Toulouse, planned for this weekend at the call of environmentalist associations, was banned at the request of the Minister of the Interior.

It’s a gathering that’s coming “particularly mobilizing”, according to territorial information. Several hundred people began to gather on Friday June 7 in Puylaurens (Tarn), on the first day of a weekend of mobilization against the A69 Castres-Toulouse motorway. Unlike the month of April, when the demonstration was authorized and did not result in damage, the gatherings against the construction site were this time banned by the prefectures of Tarn and Haute-Garonne, on the orders of the Minister of Interior, Gérald Darmanin.

The demonstration, organized in particular at the call of the Uprisings of the Earth – of which Gérald Darmanin had ordered the dissolution, rejected by the Council of State –, promises to be “extremely violent” with “up to 5,000 people” expected, justified the Minister of the Interior on Wednesday. Among them, “600 black blocs (…) who want to fight with the police, attack property, attack people”according to him.

More than 1,000 gendarmes and police officers must be deployed, notably on Saturday, during a “Manif’Action” planned by activists. Eight people have so far been arrested, announced Friday evening the prefect of Tarn, Michel Vilbois. Moreover, “148 items intended for weapons” have been seized since Monday, including “nail boards”of the “knives of all sizes”of the “frondes” or some “prunes”, according to its terms. But also DIY equipment, helmets or swimming goggles.

This is’“objects intended not to come in a friendly manner and to remake the world around ecology, but rather to attack the forces of order”, judged the prefect. He also mentioned the presence of “ten people on file S” among the approximately 1,500 people checked by the police ahead of the event.

The prefectural banning orders were contested by the associations before the Toulouse administrative court, which rejected their appeals on Friday evening. However, “We are continuing the demonstration. This ban is a disproportionate attack on fundamental freedoms. This marks an authoritarian turn on the part of the government”denounced to the AFP Etienne Fauteux, one of the spokespersons for La Voie est libre, a local environmentalist collective.

“To ban it is disproportionate and unjustified. [Gérald Darmanin] wants to create a climate of fear even though it is a massive and popular demonstration. People come to fight against the destruction of their territory.”

Etienne Fauteux, spokesperson for La Voix est Libre

to AFP

“Our objective remains to celebrate, to welcome people peacefully. If there are any excesses, it will be the responsibility of the police”also argues Daniel Coutarel, of the Confédération paysanne, cited by The world. “Civil disobedience is our DNA. This project goes against the interests of the living. Legality is not legitimacy. We have legitimacy”argues to the daily an activist from Extinction Rebellion Toulouse, fighting against a project “ecocidal and antisocial”.

For one of the lawyers of the opponents of the A69, Claire Dujardin, “there is a sort of trivialization, generalization of bans on demonstrations when it comes to environmental activists”. “We are banning the demonstration by announcing that there will be violence, even though there is no basis for this. The ban will therefore create the possibility of organizing an extremely developed law enforcement operation, of use force and weapons and in fact create clashes”she adds to AFP.

For several months, the construction of this 53 km section of motorway, which is intended to reduce the Castres-Toulouse journey by around twenty minutes, has been the subject of significant dispute, including on a legal level. In recent weeks, several machines used for construction work have been set on fire on the site, reports France 3 Occitanie. More than a hundred complaints for damage were in return filed by Atosca, future highway concessionaire and site operator. The workers have “received jets of urine, jets of excrement, we were stoned (…), we are more than fed up”also denounces to France 3 Charles-Alexandre Lepeltier, director of major construction sites of Atosca. In anticipation of the hectic weekend, the company assured on Saturday, on franceinfo, that it had “everything has been done to completely strengthen the security of the site and the regrouping of equipment.”

At the end of May, several activists who organized a demonstration against the highway in December, punctuated by incidents, were placed in police custody for “complicity in destruction of property of others” or “complicity in violence” on police officer. “What I am accused of is totally fallacious”declared environmental activist and tree defender Thomas Brail, released a few hours later. “There is a desire to dissuade people from meeting us in a week at the demonstration. This is why they targeted the representatives of associations”he added.

For his part, the United Nations special rapporteur on environmental defenders, Michel Forst, asked France to take “immediate measures” in order to ensure the protection of activists. He evokes the “severity of observations” which he was able to do on site, at the end of February, during the various gatherings near the so-called “Crem’Arbre” site. In a report, contested by the Tarn prefecture, he notably calls for “an investigation and sanctions for acts of sleep deprivation, burning of materials, lighting of fires and dumping of apparently flammable products by the police, which may have endangered” the life of activists installed in the trees.