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French gendarmes clash with environmental protestors over motorway project

Tensions over the proposed A69 motorway connecting the southern French towns of Castres and Toulouse have once again reached boiling point.

Published: 22 October 2023 15:19 CEST
A protestor faces down French gendarmes as they begin to clear a protest site.
A protestor faces down French gendarmes as they begin to clear a protest site. (Photo by Valentine CHAPUIS / AFP)

French law enforcement officers cleared protestors from a temporary camp set-up to block construction works for the new A69 motorway.

Gendarmes fired tear gas and bulldozed barricades with armoured vehicles from about 13h on Sunday in a bid to clear protestors from the site, located in the southern Tarn département. At least 7 arrests have been made.

Environmentalist Thomas Brail, who recently went on hunger strike outside the French Environment Ministry, was among the protestors at the site. In online footage, he appears to be evacuated, unconscious, following the intervention by the gendarmes. 

The clashes on Sunday follow a mass demonstration on Saturday, during which organisers say close to 10,000 people protested against the construction of the A69 road – the government claims the real number of protestors was 4,900. 

Officials claim that two policemen were “lightly injured” on Saturday and the French Transport Minister said that dozens of “knives, iron bars and pickaxes were confiscated”. 

Environmental activists protest against the proposed A69 motorway in southern France on Saturday.

Environmental activists protest against the proposed A69 motorway in southern France on Saturday. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP)

The protests and clashes this weekend are the latest in the long-running contestation over the construction of the A69.

The government and some local business leaders insist that the road, which if completed will connect Toulouse and Castres, will help better connect populations in rural parts of the country and boost the regional economy. Environmentalists, scientists and farmers say it is an expensive project that is bad for the environment and biodiversity. 

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The A69 construction has faced more than 10 legal challenges, all of which have been struck down. The government says that given the construction has been approved by MPs democratically elected by the people, it should continue to go ahead despite criticism. It also argues that given construction has already begun, it doesn’t make sense to stop. 

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POLICE

French authorities raid Goodyear tyre sites in ‘involuntary homicide’ probe

Investigators were on Tuesday searching three European sites belonging to American tyre giant Goodyear, French prosecutors said, as part of an "involuntary homicides" probe of crashes caused by burst truck tyres.

Published: 14 May 2024 16:38 CEST
French authorities raid Goodyear tyre sites in 'involuntary homicide' probe

“Simultaneous searches, mostly digital, began on Tuesday morning at Goodyear in France, in Luxembourg and at the company’s European HQ in Brussels,” said Etienne Manteaux, prosecutor in Besancon in eastern France.

An investigating magistrate in Besancon had issued a request for international assistance, Manteaux said.

“The aim of these searches is to find out how much Goodyear knew about how dangerous the Marathon LHS II and Marathon LHS II+ tyres were and how many incidents it was made aware of,” Manteaux told AFP.

Goodyear confirmed it was subject to searches and told AFP it was “cooperating fully” with the authorities.

Two truck drivers were killed on France’s A36 motorway in July 2014 when one of them lost control of his vehicle when his tyres burst.

Sophie Rollet, whose husband Jean-Paul died in the accident, filed a criminal complaint against Goodyear in 2016 after carrying out her own investigation.

The case is one of three under investigation by Besancon magistrates involving trucks equipped with the Goodyear tyre models under suspicion, in which a total of four people died.

All were caused by the front left tyre bursting, causing the drivers to lose control, according to investigators.

In each case, independent experts found that the tyres failed due to manufacturing defects in the metallic bands holding them together and the detachment of the tread.

Four more crash cases dating to 2011-14 have been added to the probe, although they are past the statute of limitations.

“Goodyear has never acknowledged a safety issue” even when pushed by truck builders Scania and Man, Manteaux said, while the manufacturers themselves urged operators to replace the affected tyres.

The company nevertheless launched an exchange programme for customers, dubbed “Tango”, in 2014, he added.

Goodyear “could have done a recall campaign, but this was a sales exchange: many companies didn’t respond because they weren’t told there was a safety problem,” Manteaux said.

“If a recall programme had been put in place, one might think these people (who died after March 2014) might still be alive,” he added.

A similar exchange scheme had been set up in Spain as early as 2013, Manteaux noted.

He added that a whistleblower had sent prosecutors “elements from Goodyear about compensation claims opened after similar incidents.

“There are many of them, in many European countries”.

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