After the Roland-Garros tennis tournament in June and a Formula 1 Grand Prix in early July, the Tour de France found itself on the front line on Tuesday of the fight led by environmental activists eager to “stop the mad race towards annihilation of our society”.
38 km from the finish of the 10th stage, nine activists from the “Last Renovation” movement stopped the Tour de France riders for nearly a quarter of an hour by sitting on the road and deploying smoke bombs.
The race was neutralized, the time for the police to evacuate the demonstrators and for “Dernière Rénovation” to claim by a press release and on social networks its action aimed at a new flagship event of the sports calendar.
“We can no longer remain spectators of the ongoing climate disaster. We have 989 days left to save our future, our humanity”, explained the movement.
“The finish line is a ravine and we accuse our government and in particular the President of the Republic of condemning us to death (…) We must change policy, and start -immediately- with the comprehensive energy renovation of buildings “, continues the text which inscribes its last action of “sports disruption” in “an international movement of civil resistance”.
– Tied to the net –
The “Last Renovation” movement had already succeeded in a high-profile action on June 3 during the Roland-Garros tennis tournament. An activist had interrupted the semi-final between the Norwegian Casper Ruud and the Croatian Marin Cilic for fifteen minutes by attaching herself to the net.
In front of cameras and cameras around the world, the young woman appeared with a t-shirt on which was written the message “We have 1028 days left” (We only have 1028 days left).
A message taken up by the activists who intervened on the roads of the Tour de France on Tuesday and who wore a t-shirt stamped with the words “We have 989 days left” (We only have 989 days left).
“The reality is that the world to which the politicians are sending us is a world in which the Tour de France can no longer exist”, justified one of the activists, quoted in the press release of “Dernière Rénovation” .
In early July, five activists from the group “Just Stop Oil” disrupted the Formula 1 British Grand Prix by entering the Silverstone circuit.
– Football too –
In a press release, this association which calls for the cessation of the exploitation of fossil fuels in the United Kingdom had demanded that “the government immediately put an end to new oil and gas projects in the United Kingdom” and warned that “they would continue to disrupt sporting and cultural events (…) until this request is met”.
Other sporting events have been targeted by environmental activists in recent months.
During the Liège-Bastogne-Liège cycling classic, on April 24, a young man was invited to the course very close to the finish, just before the arrival of the winner of the race, the Belgian Remco Evenepoel.
The protester wore a t-shirt that read “Climate Justice Now”.
Earlier in the season, on April 3, an activist from the “Extinction Rebellion” movement briefly disrupted the Tour of Flanders. This same activist then clung to a goal during the final of the Belgian Football Cup on April 18, this time with the message “Won’t our children die from the climate crisis?”.
In England, several football matches have been disrupted. On March 18, Louis McKechnie, also involved in the action during the British GP, interrupted the Everton-Newcastle match by tying himself by the neck to a post.
“Our government is knowingly destroying my future and condemning billions of people to death around the world,” he said.
