Opponents of the Lyon-Turin high-speed rail line construction site began to flock to the Maurienne Valley on Friday June 16 without waiting for the court’s decision, which confirmed in the evening the prefectural decree prohibiting their large demonstration scheduled for Saturday.
The administrative court of Grenoble rejected a request filed by Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV), Attac Savoie and the association Vivre et act en Maurienne, because the “configuration of the course (…) does not guarantee (…) safety ” of the procession, but also because of the “risk of intrusion of particularly sensitive sites” and the possible presence of “radical protesters”, according to the order published on the court’s website.
“The right to demonstrate is increasingly restricted in France”, reacted to Agence France-Presse (AFP) the applicants’ lawyer, Me Arie Alimi, denouncing a “criminalization of the environmental movement initiated by the Minister of inside for some time”.
The prefecture of Savoie had banned Thursday “any demonstration or gathering on the public highway” from Friday to Sunday in nine municipalities of Maurienne “in order to ensure the safety of people and property”.
“They are the ones who break the mountain”
Without waiting, the demonstrators began to set up camp in the meadows, in the lower part of the Maurienne valley, on land loaned by the municipality of La Chapelle, outside the prohibition zone drawn by the authorities. A “more comfortable” location for activists, where “you feel safe,” said Pina, an Earth Uprising activist. Preferring to remain anonymous, she recalls that 2,000 police officers will be deployed, while the organizers expect 2,000 to 4,000 participants for this “massive mobilization”.
Authorities anticipate “just under 5,000 participants, including many Italian and Swiss nationals”, with “more than 400 radicals likely to cause serious public disorder”. On Thursday, the Savoy prefecture said it “feared intrusions and damage to construction sites” to justify the arrests, a reason retained by the courts.
Some 107 administrative inadmissibility of territory – intended to block a foreigner’s access to France when “their presence constitutes a serious danger” – have been taken, according to the Ministry of the Interior. “We are not the breakers, they are the ones who break the mountain”, indignant Etienne, 40, from the region of Dijon, where he works in market gardening.
A dozen organizations, including the Uprisings of the Earth and the Italian No-Tav, have been beating the drum for several weeks in view of this gathering intended to denounce the “harmful” impact, according to them, of this colossal project launched there over thirty years ago by the European Union.
“France hasn’t budgeted anything”
Tensions have crystallized since the French Ministry of Transport, under pressure from the Italian government and supporters of the project, began to quantify the cost of the 150 km of access roads to the tunnel being dug under the Alps. “It’s the period of funding for the final works (…), France hasn’t budgeted anything (…), so it’s time to stop it,” said Max Milliex, a local member of the collective Vivre et act in Maurienne.
Elected officials such as the EELV mayor of Grenoble, Eric Piolle, and the deputy La France insoumise (LFI) Mathilde Panot announced their presence on Saturday.
Decisions concerning other remedies against bans on festive gatherings or the circulation of agricultural machinery should be published on Saturday morning, according to the administrative court.
According to environmental activists, the “titanic” construction involving the drilling of galleries through the Alpine massifs poses a threat because of the drainage linked to the construction of the tunnel, representing “60 to 125 million cubic meters of water annually”. According to them, the planned works will cause “the artificialization of 1,500 hectares of agricultural land” and “destroy the mountain for the economic interests of the few”.
“One day we will have to know in what sick mind was born the idea that the Lyon-Turin tunnel was going to destroy the planet while the Swiss built three identical ones without any problem”, replied Thursday in a tweet the Committee for the Transalpine, bringing together the ardent supporters of the site, with an overall cost estimated at 26 billion euros.
