On Sunday, October 13, a search was carried out in Gironde, in the camp of opponents of the future high-speed line (LGV) in the southwest, a day after a mobilization marked by damage, Agence France learned. -Press (AFP) with the prosecutor’s office and the organizers.
“These are completely classic acts of investigation that are underway”The Bordeaux prosecutor’s office specified, confirming that the investigations were related to the looting, on Saturday afternoon, of a stuck gendarmerie vehicle, by hooded protesters on the sidelines of a procession in the forest. Equipment (helmets, shield, leggings) had been stolen from the vehicle.
The LGV non merci collective and the environmental movement Les Soulèvements de la Terre have also demanded “paintings, banners, disarmament” having attacked, during the night from Saturday to Sunday, several facilities of companies involved in the LGV project, including the cement manufacturer Lafarge. According to LGV non merci, several gendarmerie units, including canine teams, broke into the camp set up for the weekend in Lerm-et-Musset, 75 kilometers south of Bordeaux, on Sunday.
About 500 objects seized
At the height of the event, the anti-LGV mobilization gathered 1,500 people, according to the organizers, between 800 and 1,000 people, according to the authorities. At 6:30 p.m. on Sunday there were only about forty vehicles left in the camp, installed on private property and “be dismantled”specified the prefecture of Gironde, which reported three arrests over the weekend. About five hundred objects were seized, “including two hunting rifles, two crossbows, fifty edged weapons, numerous fireworks, as well as petanque balls, slingshots, masks and protective glasses.”he clarified.
The LGV has broad support from the communities of Occitania, but, in New Aquitaine, opposition to the project estimated at around fifteen billion euros is long-standing and mixes local elected officials and parliamentarians, residents, foresters and winegrowers. This line should shorten the train journey between Paris and Toulouse by seventy-three minutes. A branch line through the Landes Forest should connect Dax with Bordeaux in twenty minutes less than currently and, one day, allow direct connections with Spain, while freeing up the existing route for the transport of goods.
Opponents denounce a project “mortal” which would lead, according to them, to the artificialization of about 5,000 hectares. They advocate a renewal of existing lines to develop “daily trains” and criticize the imposition of a special tax on more than 2,300 municipalities near the route to co-finance the next project.
