A large demonstration against the construction of the railway line between Lyon and Turin scheduled for Saturday and Sunday by opponents of the project has been banned due to “risks of overflows”, announced Thursday, June 15 the prefect of Savoie, François Ravier. “There are concerns about the safety of law enforcement and firefighters,” he said at a press briefing.
A dozen organizations, including Les Uprisings of the Earth and the Italian No TAV, plan to demonstrate on Saturday alongside elected officials such as the mayor of Grenoble, Eric Piolle (Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, EELV), and MP Mathilde Panot (Rebellious France). Some 2,000 gendarmes and police will be deployed in this border valley with Italy, with 70 firefighters and relief, said the prefect.
The call to demonstrate is maintained, said Marc Pascal, EELV referent of Savoie. “The prefect’s motives are fallacious, we are not terrorists,” he told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “We continue to call for a family-friendly, celebratory, non-violent, peaceful protest. Lawyer Arié Alimi said he had been seized by EELV, Attac and the local association Vivre
The aim of the demonstrators is to denounce the ecological impacts, in particular on the water, of this “titanic railway project, involving the drilling of 260 kilometers of galleries through the Alpine massifs”. According to them, work will “destroy the mountain for the economic interests of the few, to the detriment of the living”.
Between 3,000 and 4,000 demonstrators expected
These organizations did not give an assessment of the number of demonstrators, did not declare certain routes or specify the location of the base camp of the demonstration, said the prefect. According to him, they could be “between 3,000 and 4,000”. These are “in particular people coming from outside regions and probably from foreign border countries, in particular Italy and Switzerland”. “We have been informed of the presence of radical elements, between 300 and 500,” added the prefect, citing assessments from the Ministry of the Interior.
“Considering the will displayed by some to put an end to the work, we fear intrusions and damage to the sites,” he said. The prefectural decree, published shortly after, prohibits “the holding of any festive gathering of a musical nature […] other than those legally declared or authorized […] on the whole territory of the department of Savoie, at from Friday, June 16, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. until Monday, June 19, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. The sale of firework mortars, retail fuels, chemicals and fireworks is already prohibited, according to the prefecture.
Thursday morning, a demonstration in support of the construction site brought together around 200 people, including elected officials, mayors, deputies and senators, in front of the Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne station. The case sparks renewed tensions between supporters and opponents as the Ministry of Transport has begun to quantify the cost of the 150 kilometers of access roads to the tunnel being dug under the Alps while reflections continue on the rail route French side.