Environmental activist Greta Thunberg joined a gathering of opponents of the A69 Toulouse-Castres motorway project in the south-east of France on Saturday in Tarn, under pouring rain.
The global face of the fight against global warming, wearing a fuchsia raincoat, gray hood and Palestinian keffiyeh around her neck, is part of an international delegation that arrived late in the morning in Saïx, a town located a few kilometers west of Castres where a weekend of awareness of environmental issues called “la cabanade” is to be held on Saturday and Sunday.
She is surrounded by activists carrying signs reading “Stop A69” and was to participate in a press conference a little later.
The organizers hope to bring together 500 to 1,000 people for workshops, round tables and concerts, but the rainy and windy weather and the intervention on Friday of the police in the immediate vicinity could dampen enthusiasm.
“Risks of major disturbances to public order”
On Friday, the prefect of Tarn announced that he had “issued an order prohibiting demonstrations and gatherings” on Saturday and Sunday in Saïx, citing “risks of major disturbances to public order”.
“Gathering on a private estate, with the agreement of the owner, is not prohibited, everyone can invite whoever they want to their home,” the prefecture services clarified on Saturday.
“What happened on Friday was that there were violent opponents who blocked the public highway with barricades, hence the strong action,” said a prefecture official. , confirming the arrest on Friday of two people and seven members of the police injured, in particular by stone throwing.
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On Saturday morning, AFP journalists saw around a hundred demonstrators facing police on a railway line a few hundred meters away, next to a wooded area which is the subject of a dispute over with an expropriation of its owner due to the construction of the highway and where activists camp in tents or in cabins built in trees.
According to the prefecture, this is an “illegal occupation” of private land.
“A hundred individuals are blocking the railway between Toulouse and Castres and they have put obstacles on it.
The individuals had set up three barricades and set one on fire, the gendarmes managed to reopen the municipal road which had been blocked,” the prefecture indicated in a message.