• For more than a year, collectives, associations and elected officials have been mobilizing against a project to artificialize 86 hectares of mainly agricultural land in Provence.

  • The area had been wildly occupied between November and June.

  • This Tuesday, a delegation of elected officials, parliamentarians and associations was received at the prefecture.

Is continuing the artificialization of the soil a luxury that Provence can afford, at a time when droughts and episodes of intense rain follow one another?

This is the question posed for almost a year by associations, collectives and elected officials mobilized against the project to extend an activity zone in Pertuis (Vaucluse), a town located north of Aix-en-Provence, which provides for the concreting of 86 hectares of agricultural land.

Last November, dozens of activists embarked on an operation of wild occupations of the site in order to fight against this project.

They had planted potatoes there and baptized their occupation: ZAP (potato zone), a diversion of ZAD (zone to defend), a term popularized since the fight against the airport of Notre-Dame-des-Landes.

Towards a soft moratorium?

This Tuesday, a hundred of them were gathered in front of the prefecture of Marseille, where a delegation of association leaders, parliamentarians and elected officials were received by representatives of the prefect.

“We reminded the prefect that it was an anachronistic project, especially since the law which plans to achieve zero net artificialisation of the soil.

We are hopeful for the future,” said Hendrick Davi, Nupes deputy from Marseille.

“We are happy with the exchange and there is a favorable listening”, estimated Sébastien Barles, elected EELV of Marseille and the metropolis.

“The prefecture told us that it will depend on the local intermunicipal urban plan which will be voted on at the start of 2023. If the metropolitan council acts to sanctuary these lands, the prefecture should lift the declaration of public utility,

and this project will stop.

We have six months to convince the elected officials of the territory, ”he summed up.

Already, during the metropolitan council at the end of June, Martine Vassal had noted the need to review this project.

“We are moving towards a smooth moratorium”, rejoiced Sébastien Barles.

For a long time, activists have denounced an ecocide project mixed with conflict of interest.

Roger Pellenc, the mayor of Pertuis, who, contacted "believes he has already said everything on the question", is the owner of the eponymous company which builds tools and machinery for viticulture.

As the project stands, of the 86 hectares of expansion, 30 will be acquired by the Pellenc company.

“A dishonest mix of genres”, raises the elected ELLV.

One euro per square meter

Laurent Dubois owns 20,000 square meters of land which he uses in his dumpster rental business.

“They offered me one euro per square meter for the expropriation.

All that to set up an activity, they say, but I already have an activity”.

Beyond the concreting of the land, there is also the question of a model of development and agriculture.

“The ancients said that Pertuis and the Durance valley were the cellar of Marseille.

I think there are three farmers left,” laments Anne, 76, who came to support the fight.

A struggle that has been carried out in a protean way, between direct action, occupation and administrative remedies.

"If there hadn't been mobilization and direct action, nothing would have happened today," said Jules*, a young man from Marseille who actively participated in the savage occupation that ended in last June with an eviction carried out by law enforcement.

“And now, here are the elected officials who show up and are lathered up,” laughs the young man who contemplates the interview scenes in front of the prefecture.

Still, the decisive part of this battle will have to be decided by voting in the metropolitan council.

*Name has been changed

Planet

Amazon: A quarter of the forest is destroyed, and it is irreversible

Planet

Wildfires: Forest fires generated record CO2 emissions this summer in Europe

  • Planet

  • Marseilles

  • Aix en Provence

  • Struggle

  • Zad

  • Paca