Brief scuffles took place on Saturday shortly after the start of the demonstration against the Lyon-Turin high-speed rail line, which brings together nearly 5,000 environmental demonstrators according to the organizers and more than 3,000 according to the authorities, in the Maurienne valley (Savoie ). Around 3 p.m., some demonstrators threw stones at the police near Saint-Rémy-de-Maurienne, outside the prohibition zone delimited by the prefecture of Savoie.
The security forces made “use of tear gas by the security forces to keep hostile demonstrators at a distance following the throwing of projectiles”, the gendarmerie said. Protesters then invaded the nearby railway line, while train traffic was stopped due to the situation in the early afternoon, according to the SNCF.
“A few days ago, the Lyon-Turin pros were only 100”
The procession had moved off calmly in the middle of the day at the call of a dozen organizations, including the Uprisings of the Earth, threatened with dissolution by the Ministry of the Interior, and the Italian No-Tav, mobilized against a “pharaonic” project deemed “harmful” for the environment, biodiversity and water resources. The departure of this undeclared demonstration took place from the neighboring town of La Chapelle, located outside the prefectural prohibition perimeter.
“Our number is a political signal (…) a few days ago, the Lyon-Turin pros met, they were only 100, there are thousands of us saying that we want this useless project to be stopped”, declared the parliamentary leader LFI Mathilde Panot, present in the procession with several elected Greens and LFI, before the incidents. “There was no reason not to authorize this demonstration as long as it is in a non-violent spirit and we will always advocate the logic of non-violence”, for her part underlined Senator EELV Fabienne Grebert. .
With a group of elected officials, the senator tried to negotiate the route with the authorities to “go a little further”, while the demonstrators waited under a scorching sun on a small road near Saint-Rémy-de-Maurienne . The scuffles took place after these negotiations.