Earth News from TerraDaily.com
Gendarmes, activists clash in French motorway protest
Maurens-Scopont, France, July 5 (AFP) Jul 05, 2025
Protesters clashed with law enforcement during a protest against a planned motorway in southwest France Saturday, which critics object to on environmental grounds.

Several hundred demonstrators, including around 50 who were masked and dressed in black, were involved in the confrontation, some throwing stones as gendarmes fired tear gas.

About a thousand activists had gathered at a chateau near the site of construction work on the A69 Toulouse-Castres motorway to show their opposition to the project.

The meeting went ahead despite having been banned by the local Tarn prefecture because of "serious violence" at previous protests. The manor house's owner had agreed to the gathering there, on condition it was peaceful.

Some protesters however used tree trunks, branches and wooden pallets to block the main road running alongside the A69 worksite, a route that had already been closed off to traffic.

AFP journalists saw them set bushes on fire, tear up a traffic sign and try to get on to the motorway site as they clashed with the gendarmes.


- 'Let nothing pass' -


Before the protest, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau had warned on X that "we will let nothing pass".

He added: "When, in the name of ecology, dozens of ultra-left masked and dangerous activist protesters... who only want to destroy or attack cops, are mobilised, then we have shifted into sedition and ultra-violence."

The prefecture posted photos on X of items seized from the protesters, including axes, a pick and a crowbar.

Work on the motorway began in 2023 and is due to finish in the second half of 2026, but opponents still hope to stop it being finished.

In February, an administrative court in Toulouse ordered a halt to work on the project, ruling there was no major pressing public interest that justified the damage to the environment.

That ruling was hailed as a victory by the motorway's opponents.

But it triggered a number of initiatives by the project's backers, in particular a proposed law aimed at granting the required environmental approval retroactively.

That is expected to become law in the next few days, following a final parliamentary vote.

At the end of May, the Toulouse administrative court of appeal ruled that work on the motorway could continue ahead of a more detailed examination of the case set for the end of the year.

elr-ap/jj/jhb

X





Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Bioplastic habitats could sustain algae growth for space colonization
Boeing expands SES O3b mPOWER fleet with latest satellite delivery
China launches international association to boost global access to deep space research

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Growing evidence for evolving Dark Energy could inspire a new model of the Universe
UK lab promises air-con revolution without polluting gases
Bezos-backed methane-tracking satellite lost in space

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Planet secures 240 million euro satellite services contract with German government
Sceye secures SoftBank backing to launch HAPS connectivity services in Japan
Khamenei seen publicly for first time since end of war with Israel

24/7 News Coverage
Study challenges climate change's link to our wild winter jet stream
Successful liftoff delivers Sentinel4 on MTG satellite to enhance atmospheric forecasting
SatSure and Dhruva Space unite to deliver complete Earth observation service solutions


ADVERTISEMENT



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.