Rather scents of moss in the undergrowth than smells of tear gas. It’s time for relief in Saïx, in the Tarn, at the end of the first day of ” Leaving the road “, the great mobilization of opponents to the construction of the A69 motorway between Toulouse and Castres. Even the prefect, François-Xavier Lauch “welcomes the respect of the commitments made by the organizers and thanks them for it”.
The exchange of friendliness nevertheless comes up against the mathematical obstacle. The authorities have counted 4,500 walkers, the organizers announce 8,200. In any case, it is much more than the “1,500 to 2,000” walkers announced, despite a drizzle that is not really spring-like. And the “pacifism” of the march is no doubt very much due to the discretion shown by the police and gendarmes in staying away from both the “camp” of Saïx and the procession.
In the absence of “blue” on the horizon, the slayers of the highway were able to unroll their green thread. Their multicolored camp was set up on agricultural land threatened by the project, “where it is planned to excavate up to eight meters deep while the water table is at three meters”. They started their “determined walk” on the paths of a large wood then followed hiking trails through the ornithological reserve of Cambounet-sur-le-Sor. “Ah, that too is in danger,” said a Breton demonstrator, who arrived the day before from his country “where there is no highway”, to defend the environment.
The long procession, family in places, political in others – with the presence of the NPA, the PCF, Manuel Bompard for LFI and Sandrine Rousseau for the ecologists – then won the RN126, the famous national road that opponents would prefer to see fitted out in place of the motorway, and on which diversions have already been built in Soual and Puylaurens. “Works that Tarnais taxpayers have already paid for,” notes Marie-Françoise, a resident of Cambounet. However, they will be well integrated into the private and paying highway, the round-trip toll of which will be around 17 euros. The 60-year-old has been preparing since 1996, since “we have known the 300-meter wide spindle”, to be expropriated because of this project, like 160 farmers. With her husband, they stopped investing in their house and discovered, thanks to the La Voie est libre (LVEL) collective, that otters were living at the bottom of their garden. She finally learned last January that, no, she shouldn’t leave. But that she was going to live “63 meters from a highway”: “The cold shower. »
“We are right and we will have the right”
In Saïx, unlike Sainte-Soline, the violence did not hide the background. And yet alongside LVEL, the organizers were the same: the Peasant Confederation, Extinction Rebellion, the Earth Uprisings. “There are not peaceful demonstrations on one side and violent demonstrations on the other, as Gérald Darmanin would like to suggest. There are gestures of creative resistance, more or less strongly repressed by the State”, analyze the co-organizers. Creative, they were with their race of cars, craftsmanship and wacky, crashing into a wall built in a hurry in the middle of the national. With a slight injury to the key all the same.
And whether they are local residents or come from afar, what is striking is their determination. “No tarmac! “, they chanted all Saturday by diverting, sometimes stammering out of habit, “No pasaràn”. For opponents of the A69, “it is never too late to oppose a project from another time”. Three decades in this case, for this project which they imagine was thought “in a world that had no limits yet”. All are convinced that their legal actions will succeed. “We are right and we will have the right,” repeats the LVEL spokesperson. And even if they lose, they promise that there will be “other campsites”, that they will be “behind every blade of grass, every branch of a tree and under every machine”.
This Sunday will be devoted to debates and concerts. The question is whether, as promised to the prefect, they will break camp or settle for a long time.