A little less than a thousand people were still present this Tuesday evening on the site of a giant rave party which brought together up to 10,000 revelers in the Cévennes massif, last weekend, said the prefecture of Lozère which evokes an "acceleration of departures".
This gathering undermined measures to fight the new coronavirus while the department of Lozère, the least populated in France, has been the most spared since the start of the pandemic.
No forced evacuation of the site
"Things are accelerating and we will continue to put the pressure even more strongly", declared the prefect Valérie Hatsch in the evening to AFP. "A lot of equipment", including sound systems, was seized and "numerous verbalizations" for possession of narcotics in particular were drawn up, she added.
In a statement, the prefecture explained in the morning that “the presence of young children, the precarious sanitary conditions linked to the consumption of alcohol and narcotics and the rapid decrease in the number of participants, linked to the controls carried out. by the police, fully justified at this stage the decision of the State services not to proceed with the forced evacuation of the site ”- fields located in the town of Hures-la-Parade, on a plateau limestone, in the heart of the Cévennes national park.
Rural Coordination was unsuccessful
The prefecture denounced the actions of 13 farmers from the Rural Coordination of Lozère, a “minority union”, who blocked several roads on Monday demanding the forced evacuation of revelers. These farmers "are not concerned by the occupation of the site and are not mandated by the owner of the premises or by the Chamber of Agriculture, who completely dissociate themselves from their action", she insisted.
The breeder who owns the pastures where the "ravers" are installed, for his part told AFP that he did not support the protest actions of the Rural Coordination.
The farmers of the Coordination had "threatened to block the A75 motorway if a forced evacuation of the" teknival "site ... was not immediately started", recalled the prefecture. Prevented from carrying out this action, they then blocked or slowed down traffic on several roads before “gathering in the center” of Mende, “where they made a noise from 11:30 pm”. "It is regrettable that the action of the farmers of the Rural Coordination has diverted part of the police from the priority mission assigned to them on the teknival site," she lamented.
- Languedoc-Roussillon
- Society
- Coronavirus
- Party
- Farmers
- Rave