The five activists have been fasting since October 22nd. They undressed in the vicinity of the prefecture, with the number of kilos each felt on their felt belly: from -6.5 kg to -11 kg.
Five opponents of the construction of a controversial motorway ring road in Strasbourg began their fourth week of hunger strike Monday, stripping naked in front of the Bas-Rhin Prefecture to show the effects of fasting on their bodies.
A sixth hunger striker suffered a malaise just before and had to be evacuated by firefighters.
"At first we lose fat, then lose muscle," says Michel Dupont, one of those opponents to the construction of the Great Western Bypass (GCO), which lost 6.5 kg. "We are extremely tired, emaciated, it shows on our body. We hardly go out anymore, and still, I am the one who has lost the least " .
Show up to prove that they are "really on hunger strike"
"We did this operation because people in the prefecture say that we do not really go on a hunger strike, whether it's shifting or boring ... There is a moment when we have to stop. We will go as far as possible without disaster, " says Michel Dupont.
"We are extremely tired, we feel a lot more cold and at the slightest little activity right away the heart is racing, we feel the changes in our body," says Christine Ludes, who lost 11 kg, or almost 15% of its normal weight.
A ring road project planned for 2021
According to its promoters, the GCO project must offload the A35 motorway, regularly congested, absorbing traffic from north to south of Alsace. The commissioning of this 24-km ring road, which is mainly paying, is scheduled for 2021.
Its opponents believe that it will lead to an influx of trucks in the region, a deterioration of air quality, the disappearance of many agricultural lands and the endangerment of protected species.