The demonstrations organized by the Uprisings of the Earth on June 17 and 18, 2023 against the Lyon-Turin rail project, in Savoy, were banned by the authorities. Will the decision be respected? What do environmental activists denounce?
Will there be a demonstration on the construction site on the Lyon-Turin tunnel this weekend? The mobilization had been planned for a long time by the Uprisings of the Earth, but as the event approached, the prefecture of Savoie decided to ban the gathering. “Risks of overflows” are at the origin of the decision of the prefect, François Ravier, announced on June 15. “There are fears about the safety of law enforcement and firefighters,” he added, mentioning the “2,000 gendarmes and police officers” deployed in the Maurienne valley from Friday June 16 to Sunday June 18.
The Lyon-Turin project, a 140 km railway line linking France to Italy via the Alps, has faced fierce opposition from environmental activists on both sides of the border for 30 years. While work has begun and the line should be operational by 2030, the Uprising of the Earth association supported by the Italian organization No Tav denounces the “massive destruction program” of the alpine environment that is the Lyon-Turin line. It calls for “international and popular mobilization” on June 17 and 18, 2023. Will the demonstrations be maintained despite the ban imposed by the authorities? Very likely.
The demonstrations initially planned on the construction site of the Lyon-Turin project raise fears of excesses: several thousand people are expected, including radical elements, and the previous mobilizations of the Earth Uprisings have sometimes been the scene of clashes between militants and law enforcement.
No specific location has been communicated by the Earth Uprisings, which is co-organizing the mobilization with the Italian collective “No Tav”, a historical opponent of the Alpine rail tunnel. It is only stated that the assembly must take place in the valley in Maurienne, Savoie. According to the intelligence services, “the zone of the base camp of the demonstration could extend between the lake of Tufs and the center of the ski resort La Norma”. Therefore the mobilizations should be held in the surrounding perimeter. The station next to the camp is only two kilometers from the Lyon-Turin construction site led by the company TELT (Tunnel Euralpin Lyon-Turin).
The demonstrations and/or mobilizations of environmental activists and opponents of the Lyon-Turin project should begin on Saturday June 17 and continue on Sunday June 18. On the other hand, the participants in the rally are expected on site from Friday for the first arrivals. “The opening of a camp” where the demonstrators will settle for the two days of action is planned for the day, reports France 3 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
A few days before the demonstrations against the Lyon-Turin railway project, the turn that the mobilizations may take is worrying, hence the decision to ban the rally. The Earth Uprisings want to put a “stop” to the site “before the work and damage caused are irreparable”, but the event of June 17 and 18 should not be accompanied by blockages according to the details of the program published on June 15 by the association. Naturalist walks, round tables, concerts, meetings and environmental activities are planned throughout the weekend, but events such as parades or sittings could punctuate the event.
On paper the chances of seeing the mobilizations degenerate are low, but the authorities will be on their guard after the previous mobilizations of the Earth Uprisings (in Sainte-Soline in March, on the Toulouse-Castres motorway in April or even in Nantes last weekend). The elected officials of the Maurienne also declared on June 12 to show “great vigilance in relation to this gathering”. Some like Jérémy Tracq, vice-president of the Haute-Maurienne Vanoise community of communes, indicated that “several elements make us fear that the demonstrators do not all come with peaceful intentions. […] Different calls invite disobedience civil society and to draw inspiration from Notre-Dame-des-Landes and other Zones à Défendre (ZAD), from Sainte Soline, to occupy the stations, to follow freight convoys, to set up camps on the route of the Lyon -Torino”. Upstream of the demonstrators, the elected officials therefore asked the organizers and environmental activists so that the event takes place “without violence and without damage” and that the participants do not seek “to settle permanently and illegally” on the site.
Several thousand people could take part in the demonstrations against the Lyon-Turin project this weekend, according to estimates by the intelligence services. In total, more than 4,000 environmental protesters are expected in the Maurienne valley and among them 400 radical elements, again according to the authorities. A thousand demonstrators could come from the Italian opposition to the rail project. To limit the arrival of demonstrators deemed radical, already 107 administrative bans from the territory have been issued against foreign activists, CNews has learned.
