Back to the mainland and heading to the gendarmerie, this Wednesday, for Thomas Brail. The climber leader of the National Tree Surveillance Group (GNSA) was arrested at the end of the morning in Vendine (Haute-Garonne), west of Toulouse, while he was trying to prevent a digger from digging at the foot of a plane tree. This arrest, in front of the cameras, testifies to the resumption of hostilities between opponents of the A69 motorway linking Toulouse to Castres and Atosca, the concessionaire in charge of the site.
This new round began on Sunday, when the collective La Voie est libre (Lvel) reinstalled, in a reduced format, its “Camping des plane trees” in Vendine, a town located on the route and whose alignment of trees is threatened. In the process, on Monday, Atosca filed a complaint for the offense of obstructing the progress of a construction site. “We have deadlines to meet and a public utility site which has obtained all the authorizations to be carried out”, explains a spokesperson for the concessionaire to 20 minutesconfirming that this new camp encroached on an area of ”earthworks”.
An appointment at the Ministry of Transport on Thursday
Tuesday, the gendarmes had already come and, after discussion with the authorities, the “campers” had understood that they would benefit from a certain tolerance on the site, especially as they have an appointment, Thursday, with the cabinet of the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune. Hopes dashed when the construction machinery again “brutally intervened” this Wednesday. While the opponents are rallying their troops to support Thomas Brail and “protect the gardens created on Sunday”, the camp had to be moved a little further on the plot.
The A69, a project born three decades ago, should make it possible to open up the Castres-Mazamet basin, in the south of the Tarn. It has the support of elected officials from all sides and from economic circles, but it has aroused a strong mobilization of farmers, residents and defenders of the environment, who consider it “anachronistic” and “ecocide”.