A69 Toulouse-Castres: demonstrators expected, response from the authorities… update on environmental mobilization

2023-04-22 08:40:21

The weekend promises to be hectic in Saïx (Tarn). Opponents of the A69 Toulouse-Castres are calling for demonstrations this Saturday on the future route of this highway, which plans to destroy fields and agricultural land.

What is planned?

Some 2,000 people are expected for this event, organized in Saïx, on the route of the future motorway. Several hundred activists (some 400, according to the prefect) from various regions, including New Aquitaine or Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur, set up two marquees and tents on Friday, set up tables, a bar and a canteen on an area equivalent to ten football pitches. Concerts and a race of “cars” going “as slowly as possible” are planned.

What are the authorities expecting?

Less than a month after clashes between gendarmes and demonstrators against the “megabasins” in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres), the authorities are closely monitoring this mobilization.

The prefect of Tarn, François-Xavier Lauch, clarified Friday evening that the 800 gendarmes and police officers mobilized will remain in the background if the demonstration is “peaceful”.

“I authorized this demonstration in exchange for the commitment of the organizers that there would be no overflows”, explained François Xavier-Lauch on BFM TV. The prefect nevertheless indicated that, “out of the 2,000 people expected, we think that there may be 150 to 200 people who have violent intentions”.

Friday morning, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, had warned that “we can discuss it, but not fight it”, adding however that there is “no information which shows that in the Tarn people have an absolute desire for violence”.

What are the opponents denouncing?

This motorway project is in “total contradiction with the climate emergency”, believe its opponents. At the exit of Vendine, center of the dispute until recent days, located about thirty kilometers from Saïx, dozens of posters against the A69, and rather defending a development of the existing national road, are still stuck on threatened trees.

Elected officials also point to the disappearance of agricultural land or the risk of a greater concentration of population in the Toulouse metropolis. Antoine Maurice, head of the narrowly beaten EELV list in the municipal elections in Toulouse in 2020, proposed to strengthen the Toulouse-Castres rail link, with a train every hour instead of ten per day currently.

“This project has become emblematic of the climate fight,” added Sabine Mousson, mayor of Teulat, a Tarn town which, she said, would be “cut in two” by the future highway.

What are the supporters of the project responding to?

Other elected officials from the Tarn, from all political stripes, support the motorway, which would reduce the Castres-Toulouse journey by around twenty minutes in 2025, from a duration of just over an hour today.

Atosca, the private concessionaire of the A69, qualifies its project as “exemplary” in terms of respect for the environment and job creation. Regarding agricultural land, the planned footprint has been reduced from 380 to 300 hectares, according to its general manager Martial Gerlinger.

VIDEO. Will the A69 motorway between Toulouse and Castres become a “Sainte-Soline bis”?

The Ministry of Transport said that Clément Beaune had requested a review of seven motorway projects in January, “in view of current issues: the fight against the artificialization of soils, reduction of CO2 emissions, but also opening up of territories”.

“The A69 project is no exception to this review process”, adds the ministry, while qualifying because of its state of progress: “the work has started, and a contract binding the State has been signed with the dealer “.