Collectives of opponents and the environmental movement Earth Uprisings call for demonstrations on Saturday, October 12 in Gironde against the future high-speed line (LGV) in the southwest, a demonstration placed under surveillance by the authorities.
“Tonight several shots were heard in the direction of the gendarmerie helicopter that was carrying out a reconnaissance flight over the site occupied in the south of Gironde by opponents of the project”the prefecture announced on Saturday morning X, specifying that an investigation had been opened. “Neither the crew nor the aircraft were affected”says the prefect Etienne Guyot, who “Denounce these intolerable actions”.
There, on the edge of the Landes forest, an undeclared demonstration will take place on Saturday afternoon, with still vague outlines, presented by the organizers as a series of “games” against the upcoming connection between Bordeaux, Toulouse and Dax – “big useless project” of about fifteen billion euros, they denounce.
The authorities mention the possible participation of around three thousand opponents with “several hundred violent people”. “Weapons by destination, crossbows, rifles, petanque balls, balaclavas” They were seized during upstream checks, said Gironde prefect Etienne Guyot. According to a source close to law enforcement cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP), less than two hundred people were present on Friday afternoon in a camp set up on private land in the small town of Lerm-et-Musset, 75 kilometers south of Bordeaux.
“The objective is not to allow a ZAD to be established”
Although works have begun north of Toulouse, at the end of November the necessary authorization has not yet been granted for the railway works south of Bordeaux (AFSB), prior to the siting of the LGV, scheduled for 2028.
The prefect, who has banned all demonstrations in several municipalities of the Bordeaux metropolis, calls for calm and rejects the idea that an opposition camp or ZAD (“zone to defend”) could be created in the future layout. “The objective is not to allow a ZAD to be established”warned on Friday.
The LGV aims to connect Toulouse with Paris in three hours and ten minutes by 2032, a travel time reduced by one hour. A branch line through the eastern Landes forest should connect Dax with Bordeaux in twenty minutes less and, one day, allow direct connections with Spain. The president (PS) of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Alain Rousset, defends a “Investment for at least a century” what would allow “go out” of the road the 10,000 trucks that return every day from Spain, freeing up existing lines for goods.
But opponents (local elected officials and parliamentarians, residents, foresters or winegrowers) denounce the project. “mortal” which would lead, according to them, to the artificialization of some 5,000 hectares, in particular crossing the Ciron valley, a tributary of the Garonne, where there is an ancient beech forest. They advocate a renewal of existing lines to develop “daily trains” and they criticize the imposition of a special tax on 2,340 municipalities near the layout of this project “pharaonic”co-financed by the State, local authorities and the European Union.
