The police intervened around 1 p.m. on Sunday to dislodge opponents of the A69 motorway construction site in the locality of Crémade, east of Castres, where they were organizing into a Zone to Defend (ZAD), according to several journalists present on site.
Several dozen mobile gendarmes in riot gear began shortly before 1 p.m. to surround a group of expropriated houses near the route of the future highway, invested the day before by a hundred activists to create a ZAD, like this which had been organized against the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport project near Nantes.
Anti-riot forces also used tear gas to disperse demonstrators in a meadow adjacent to the group of houses.
“We cannot forever contest decisions confirmed by the courts”
Guest of Political Questions (France inter, France TV, Le Monde) at the same time, the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune had just declared that “we cannot eternally contest, a fortiori through violence, decisions which have been confirmed by elected officials, the State and the courts”, and assured that there would be “no ZAD” on the A69.
“I do not want a country where we have zero infrastructure, zero projects and where, even with valid arguments, a minority would impose its law on elected officials and the elected majority,” he insisted, boasting of having launched an unprecedented review of motorway projects, some of which “will continue and others will be abandoned”, and of which he will give the results in a few weeks.
“The ZAD is not a festive and friendly element, it is a violation of the basic rules of property and public space, so no! », he said, reproaching the opponents for the presence in Saturday’s demonstration of “2,500 radical, hooded, violent elements”.
The sites of two subcontractors degraded
During a large demonstration which brought together several thousand opponents of this motorway project the day before, two subcontractor sites working on the site already underway were damaged, notably following fires started by activists.
Seven arrests took place and the police used “74 tear gas grenades” during these incidents.