“It is madness to carry out this project which will waste so many invaluable resources, which will destroy nature and land, which will fuel a toxic system which depends on exploitation, extraction and pollution,” Greta told the crowd at the weekend’s protest.

“Unfortunately, this kind of project does not only happen in France, but all over the world, and it is the symptom of a global crisis. All these sacrifices are happening in the name of greed and profit. We cannot let this continue.” 

Meanwhile French authorities have declared the Zone à Défendre (ZAD) camp in Saix, a small town between Toulouse and Castres where the new motorway is planned, illegal because of “risks of serious harm to public order”.

The day before Thunberg’s visit, police fired tear gas and arrested protesters – known as Zadistes – at the camp. Further clashes between protesters and police were reported the following day, and again a few days later as officials moved in to evict protesters.

On Thursday, a philosophy professor was handed a suspended prison sentence, after being found guilty of setting fire to two trucks – the latest in a string of prosecutions linked to the motorway.

But what is all the fuss about?

Long-standing plans

The A69 is intended to connect the south-western city of Toulouse and the town of Castres, in the Tarn département.

Castres, population around 42,000, is currently the largest town in France without direct access to a motorway.

City and town are just 78km apart, but driving along the winding, mostly single-lane road – the RN 126 – that connects them takes around 1 hour 20 minutes.

The proposed dualled motorway – on which work has already begun – is expected to cut between 15 and 35 minutes from the journey time. Under the plans, it will include 44 km of new route and 9km of redeveloped road, running roughly parallel to the route of the existing RN 126 and will cross the territory of 24 municipalities.

The road was first imagined in the 1990s, and plans gathered pace after the short dualled A680 opened, connecting the RN126 to the A68 autoroute, which connects Toulouse and Albi.

Environmental concerns

While other motorway projects in France have been halted, work on the A69 has continued despite protests which single out the environmental cost of the €450 million scheme.

Some 200 trees will need to be cut down to make space for the new road and 316 hectares of land will be used to complete the project. A number of protesters have installed themselves in under-threat trees to prevent them being cut down.

One, Thomas Brail, went on a 40-day hunger strike last year while camped in a tree outside the Environment Ministry.

The Ministry-attached Conseil national de la protection de la nature came out against the project in September 2022, when it published an unfavourable opinion. A month later, a similarly critical report was published by the independent Autorité environnementale.

Both reports broadly agreed that the socio-economic interests of the project would not be enough to justify the environmental damage.

Also in September, 200 scientist members of the Atécopol collective wrote an open letter to Occitanie’s regional president Carol Delga demanding that the A69 project be scrapped. They were supported, a month later, by the 1,500-strong scientifiques en rébellion group.

Village split in two

The 530-resident village of Teulat will be split in two by the new road.

The town’s mayor – who has opposed the long-planned route for more than a decade – told RMC: “This is a useless project imposed on our population. Our citizens do not feel listened to.”

In November 2023, a study carried out by Ifop for Agir pour l’environnement among a representative sample of the population of Tarn and Haute-Garonne – the two departments served by the motorway – found that 61 percent of respondents wanted the project scrapped. 

In addition, 82 percent of those polled said they would favour a local referendum aimed at voting for or against the motorway project.

Other options

There is already a train line connecting Toulouse and Castres which emits three times less CO2 than the existing road route. Opponents of the route are in favour of developing railway services on the line as an alternative transport option.

“This would be 25 times less emitting if the train line, which currently runs on diesel, was electrified,” according to the open letter published by the 200 Atécopol scientists. 

“This project contradicts our national commitments to the fight against climate change and to our net zero targets on ‘artificialisation’ and biodiversity loss,” they wrote. 

The case for

Local officials and business leaders in the region have argued that the construction is necessary and will boost economic growth. 

The A69 construction has faced numerous challenges in the courts, all of which have been struck down. The government said last year that construction should go ahead, despite opposition, after it was approved in Parliament by elected MPs.

It also said that it would make no sense to halt a major project that has already started, and that trees would be planted to offset carbon emissions and replace trees felled during construction.

Protest opposition

Residents of the tiny hamlet of Gascarié, which backs on to the ZAD camp, told La Dépêche du Midi that their lives have been turned upside down by the protests, and that access to their homes had been cut off by trenches and barricades built by the Zadistes. 

They said that, on Wednesday, they needed a police escort to get to their homes. “We were stuck at home at the weekend,” one resident, who preferred to remain anonymous said, “I’m afraid they’ll start fires in the trenches and we won’t have access to our house.

“We live in a climate of anxiety – we see people wearing balaclavas all the time. In the morning, when we go to work or take the children to school, the road is blocked, sometimes with shopping carts and barbed wire.”

Commission

More politics. A commission of inquiry set up by environmentalists in the Assembly was launched this week into the motorway’s legal and financial arrangement of the A69. 

But it has been mired in controversy from the outside. Its newly announced chairman, Tarn-Sud MP Jean Terlier, is known to be in favour of the plans. 

The commission’s report is expected to be published in July. In the meantime, work – and protests – continue.