2023-05-13 17:15:23
“Is there a pilot to save the world? “, “Balance your airport”, “Xavier Bertrand accomplice of climate inaction”, “A curfew to sleep”, “Fewer planes, more bicycles”… Good-natured banners to denounce a project they consider dangerous and anachronistic: Saturday morning, some 400 demonstrators left on foot and by bicycle from Lesquin, Fretin and Lille to reach Lille-Lesquin airport.
“We are far from the ZAD atmosphere”, confides Pierre-Henri Desdonner, the mayor of the neighboring town of Templemars, opposed to the project. At his side, other mayors but also elected officials from the city of Lille, the MEL or the regional council came to strengthen local residents, residents and environmental activists grouped around the Nada Lille association (not to the development of the airport).
Doubling of airport traffic
Led by Eiffage, the Hauts-de-France region and the European Metropolis of Lille, the project to modernize and expand Lesquin airport plans to double the surface area of the terminal to meet the objective of doubling of the airport’s annual traffic, from 2.2 million passengers to nearly 4 million in 2039.
While most opponents are in favor of modernizing the airport, they reject its extension altogether and also demand an 8-hour curfew (recommended by the World Health Organization, WHO) and a traffic cap air during the day.
Public health concerns
“If we are here, it is first of all in a logic of public health”, indicates the mayor of Lesquin, Jean-Marc Ambroziewicz. For these local elected officials, the project would harm the health of the inhabitants of neighboring municipalities and beyond, already damaged by noise and air pollution.
Other opponents emphasize the climate impact of air traffic, citing in particular the consequences on water resources, in connection with the water table. « chalk » on which depends 40% of the water distributed in the metropolis of Lille.
A project validated by the State
This project was however validated by the State in July 2022. According to the Prefecture, the expansion would improve the reception of passengers and is based on an assumption of traffic growth of 17 to 25% in the years to come. .
But the opponents, organized in collectives, denounce them an anti-ecological project which was done without real democratic debate. Sign around the neck, Philippe Nys, Ronchinese “bitter” 64 years old, rebels against “This ecological aberration when people should be pushed more to take the train. »
The promises of Elisabeth Borne
“Favor the train to the detriment of the air”it is however the commitment made by Elisabeth Borne, recalls Alain Bernard, mayor of Bouvines (without label) and also one of the vice-presidents of the MEL, in an open letter addressed to the prefect of the Region.
In addition to this promise, he lists in anaphoric form other arguments for the state to reconsider its position: “despite the unanimously unfavorable opinion of the municipal councils of the 35 municipalities concerned by the public inquiry; despite the formal reservations expressed by the 95 municipalities of the MEL on February 25, 2022; despite the negative opinion of the environmental advisory committee of Lesquin airport…” And the elected official cites the example of Amsterdam airport, which has decided to cap daytime air traffic.
A good-natured demonstration
The extension of Lille-Lesquin airport is part of a list of 42 disputed projects monitored by the Ministry of the Interior, and specifically included in a group of 17 sites considered likely “to lead to a radicalization of actions”.
After the speeches, the demonstrators remained picnicking on a green space of the airport, in agreement with the site. Always in a calm and good mood and without disrupting the operation of the airport, the work of which should start in 2024.
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