Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credits: Ed JONES / AFP 5:01 p.m., February 15, 2024

Tension was high again on Thursday in the Tarn commune of Saïx, in the immediate vicinity of a camp of opponents of the future A69 motorway. The date of Thursday February 15 had been noted by all the actors involved for months in this controversial motorway project, which should connect Toulouse to Castres from 2025.

Clouds of tear gas, jets of projectiles, burned tires and CRS charges: tension was high again on Thursday in the Tarn commune of Saïx in the Tarn, in the immediate vicinity of a camp of opponents of the future A69 motorway, noted AFP journalists. The date of Thursday February 15 had been noted by all the actors involved for months in this controversial 53 km motorway project, which should connect Toulouse to Castres from 2025.

>> READ ALSO

- “Stop A69!” : Greta Thunberg in support of opponents of a motorway project

No green light according to opponents

For Atosca, the concessionaire designated by the State, February 15 marks the start of a six-week period during which it will be able to put the final touches to the deforestation of the course, already 95% complete. A niche that the group does not intend to miss. For the opponents of the project, a few dozen of whom occupy a "zone to defend" (ZAD) of tents and cabins perched in the trees called the Crém'arbre, installed for several months in the town of Saïx, this date does not represent in no way a green light to resume slaughter.

"Slaughter is only authorized between February 15 and March 31 in areas identified as having 'lower stakes'. However, the site occupied at Crém'arbre is identified in the environmental impact study as having 'high stakes'. "It can therefore only be cleared between September 1 and October 15," La Voie est Libre explained in a press release.

Massive use of tear gas

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. As has been the case almost every day for a week, clashes took place Thursday afternoon in the immediate vicinity of the ZAD. The police made massive use of tear gas on several occasions towards around a hundred activists, most of whom had their faces covered, who responded by throwing projectiles, including stones and fire. fireworks.

>> READ ALSO

- Pascal Praud and you - “Who will pay for that?” : an opponent of the A69 motorway between Toulouse and Castres denounces the project

The Zadists retreated to the railway line which runs alongside their camp, then inside the ZAD, installed on private land currently being expropriated on which the police have so far refrained from entering. , even if the prefect of Tarn has been promising for several days to proceed with its evacuation soon. The tension then subsided and the police, assisted by the road services and firefighters, were able to begin to clear the path where the Zadists set up makeshift barricades day after day.