Demonstration against Lyon-Turin: after a calm night, the opponents on the departure

Opponents of the Lyon-Turin railway line are gradually leaving their base camp in La Chapelle (Savoie), AFP noted this Sunday, June 18 in the morning on the spot, after a calm night according to the gendarmerie. While some were still having breakfast, some of the activists folded their tents on Sunday morning and left the land that had been lent to them, backpacks, on foot, by bicycle or by car, some going to the nearest station. close, noted an AFP journalist. “No major event was observed during the night. The 2000 gendarmes and police officers remain mobilized in order to guarantee the safety of the whole of the department of Savoie”, indicated the gendarmerie.

The day should be devoted to round tables, colloquia, assemblies: Sunday, "it's a time to come together, to debate, to consider what's next," said Pina, spokesperson for Earth Uprisings, one of the organizations behind the undeclared demonstration which brought together more than 4,000 people on Saturday according to the organizers and more than 3,000 according to the authorities.

The program also provided for a general assembly of the local committees of the Earth Uprisings threatened with dissolution by the Ministry of the Interior. On the spot, a manager indicated during a speech that a cameraman of the organization, injured, was to leave the hospital during the day of Sunday. A round table was about to start in the middle of the morning under the big tent set up for the occasion and two groups of around fifteen people left for workshops in the forest, according to the AFP journalist.

The day before, opponents of the Lyon-Turin railway line had camped all afternoon on a road in the Maurienne valley, before retreating to their base camp at the end of their demonstration, marked by a brief occupation of the A43 motorway and scuffles at Saint-Rémy-de-Maurienne. “96 foreign nationals, known to the services, were turned back at the border. More than 400 dangerous objects were seized during preflight checks. Support for the 12 injured gendarmes”, sums up a tweet from Gérald Darmanin.

The organizers themselves evoke "several wounded" in their ranks during the rally at the call of a dozen movements, including the Uprisings of the Earth, threatened with dissolution by the Ministry of the Interior, and the No-Tav Italians, mobilized against a "pharaonic" and "harmful" construction site for the environment, biodiversity and the water resources of the valley. "The safety of people and property, which was our main objective, has been generally ensured," said the prefect of Savoie François Ravier during a press briefing at the end of the day.

The organizers of the demonstration protested against the fact that the procession “was blocked at the level of a bridge over the Arc river in an area without prohibition, therefore not respecting the orders filed by the prefecture. herself". “The current report shows around fifty seriously injured people, 6 hospitalizations including 2 functional prognoses,” they said in a press release on the night of Saturday to Sunday.

Present in the procession, a group of elected EELV and LFI had tried to negotiate with the authorities to "go a little further" in their journey, while the demonstrators waited under a scorching sun on a small road near Saint- Rémy-de-Maurienne, about thirty km from the Italian border. “A group of radicals”, made up of around 300 people, then provoked clashes with the police after having “formed a black bloc” then had “tried to block the A43 motorway” which was closed temporarily because of their intrusion, had detailed the prefect.

After this last incident, the procession gradually returned calmly to its base camp. In the afternoon, protesters had also briefly invaded the railway and the circulation of trains was stopped at the beginning of the afternoon because of the situation, according to the SNCF.

The departure of this undeclared demonstration bringing together more than 4,000 people, according to the latest report from the organizers, more than 3,000 according to the authorities, took place from land loaned by the municipality of La Chapelle, outside the prefectural prohibition zone. . Some 2,000 police and gendarmes had been deployed in the valley. Five buses carrying Italian activists - around 250 passengers - were stuck at the border for several hours before turning back to their towns of origin, people subject to administrative exclusion orders having been "spotted" on board, specified the prefect of Savoy.

"Macron, Darmanin and the prefect are causing the confrontation," tweeted parliamentary leader LFI Mathilde Panot, present on the spot with several elected Greens and LFI. "Today is a historic moment in this valley (...) there are a lot of people from all over France, Italy and even Switzerland", was also delighted Philippe Delhomme, former local elected official who has been active for years in the association "Vivre et act en Maurienne (VAM)".

Supported by the European Union, the new line should eventually link Lyon and Turin, with 70% of the tracks in France and 30% in Italy, and a 57.5 km tunnel crossing the Alps between Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and Susa. Estimated cost: more than 26 billion euros. Proponents of the project highlight the need to reduce the flow of heavy goods vehicles, which is constantly increasing, to limit greenhouse gas emissions. They also point to the economic development that they believe a faster rail line will allow.

Opponents argue that a line already exists and that rail freight has been falling steadily in recent years. They also denounce the ecological impacts of this “titanic railway project, involving the drilling of 260 km of galleries through the Alpine massifs”. According to them, the work has already dried up several springs and catchments in the valley. “From the dissolution of the Uprisings of the Earth, which risks being pronounced in the Council of Ministers this Wednesday, to the militarization of Val Susa, the State is trying everywhere to prevent popular uprisings. But in Italy as in France, failure is inevitable: we do not dissolve what grows back everywhere”, warned the organizers in their press release.