The police intervened again on Thursday February 15 in Saïx (Tarn), in the immediate vicinity of a camp of opponents of the future A69 motorway, which they took over at the end of the day after regaining control of an adjoining road.
Dozens of CRS showed up on site around 1:30 p.m. and used tear gas to dislodge the activists from the road running along their “zone to defend” (ZAD) installed in a private grove on the route of the highway.
This intervention aimed at freeing the public highway, as explained by the Tarn prefecture and gendarmes on site, had achieved its objective in the middle of the afternoon, the opponents having joined the perimeter of the ZAD and the forces of the order preparing to clear the path of the barricades that had been installed there.
“They will spend the night here”
But, unusually, the CRS then invaded the camp and were still there at 10 p.m., according to opponents contacted by AFP and pushed back towards the outskirts of the ZAD.
Contacted by AFP, the Tarn prefecture confirmed that the CRS were still on site, without further details.
Powerful searchlights were shined on the plot to illuminate it and the gendarmes apparently burned a wooden structure, activists said.
“They are going to spend the night here
,” said one of them.
In a press release published around 8:00 p.m., the LFI parliamentary group called for a
“return to calm”
, denouncing a
“significant police force”
and
“deliberate fires with possible endangerment and intoxication of activists on site”
.
In the afternoon, at the start of the intervention, the police made massive use of tear gas and the activists, most of whom had their faces covered, responded by throwing projectiles, including stones and fireworks.
Misinterpretation of regulations
This police operation comes on a significant date: it was on February 15 that Atosca, the concessionaire designated by the State for this controversial Toulouse-Castres motorway project, estimated that it would be able to resume tree cutting on the route.
Opponents of the project, several dozen of whom occupy the ZAD of Saïx called la Crém'arbre and where there are cabins perched in the trees, however believe that this position of Atosca is based on an erroneous interpretation of the regulations in force.
“Slaughter is only authorized between February 15 and March 31 in areas identified as
“lowest stakes”.
However, the site occupied at Crém'arbre is identified in the environmental impact study as
“high stakes”.
It can therefore only be cleared between September 1 and October 15
,” La Voie est Libre explained in a press release.
This collective is one of four associations which announced that they had filed an “environmental criminal summary” on February 9 with the Toulouse public prosecutor’s office to prohibit the resumption of land clearing.