2023-06-18 09:32:49
Opponents of the Lyon Turin railway linecamped all Saturday afternoon on a road in the Maurienne valley (Savoie), withdrew to their base camp at the end of their demonstration.
What happened
The departure of this undeclared demonstration bringing together more than 4,000 people, according to the last report of the organizers, more than 3,000 according to the authorities, was done from land loaned by the municipality of La Chapelle, outside the area of prefectural ban.
Present in the procession, a group of elected EELV and LFI tried to negotiate with the authorities to “go a little further” in their journey, while the demonstrators waited under a scorching sun on a small road near Saint- Rémy-de-Maurienne, about thirty kilometers from the Italian border.
It was then that “a group of radicals”, made up of around 300 people, provoked clashes with the police after having “formed themselves into a black bloc” and then “tried to block the highway A43″ which was temporarily closed because of their intrusion, detailed the prefect.
After this last incident, the procession gradually returned calmly to its base camp. In the afternoon, protesters also briefly invaded the railway and train traffic was stopped in the early afternoon due to the situation, according to the SNCF.
What means are deployed by the authorities?
Some 2,000 police and gendarmes have been deployed in the valley. Five buses of Italian activists – around 280 passengers – were stuck at the border for several hours before turning back to their towns of origin, people subject to administrative bans having been “spotted” on board, specified the prefect of Savoy.
The balance sheet
“96 foreign nationals, known to the services, were turned back at the border. More than 400 dangerous objects were seized during preflight checks. Support for the 12 injured gendarmes, ”sums up a tweet from Gérald Darmanin.
The organizers themselves evoke “several wounded” in their ranks during the rally at the call of a dozen movements, including the Uprisings of the Earth, threatened with dissolution by the Ministry of the Interior, and the No-Tav Italians, mobilized against a “pharaonic” and “harmful” construction site for the environment, biodiversity and the water resources of the valley.
“The safety of people and property, which was our main objective, has been generally ensured,” said the prefect of Savoie François Ravier during a press briefing at the end of the day.
The reactions
“It is all the same quite scandalous, funny that the State and the government decide to attack a movement, environmental activists, peasants, trade unions when today we should really attack to all industries, to all those who destroy the living”, underlined Pina, the spokesperson of the Uprisings of the earth, during the speeches, before the parade.
“Macron, Darmanin and the prefect are causing the confrontation”, tweeted the parliamentary leader LFI Mathilde Panot, present on the spot with several elected Greens and LFI.
“Today is a historic moment in this valley (…) there are a lot of people from all over France, Italy and even Switzerland”, rejoiced Philippe Delhomme, former local elected official who has been active for years in the association “Vivre et act en Maurienne (VAM)”.
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