A69 motorway: between 1,500 and 5,000 people demonstrated in Toulouse this Sunday against the project

Opponents of the A69 motorway believe that this motorway project “accelerates disasters” such as global warming. ILLUSTRATION ARCHIVE MAXPPP – LAURENT DARD

Between 1,550 people, according to the prefecture, and 5,000, according to the organizers, demonstrated this Sunday March 21 in Toulouse in a festive atmosphere against the A69, believing that this project of ;rsquo;highway "accelerates disasters" like global warming.

"Let's stop the damage. Long live the bus, the train, the bike", "Less growth, more happiness" or "They have the concrete, we have the slab", could we read on signs carried by opponents of the future Toulouse-Castres highway of all ages, who demonstrated this Thursday, April 21 in Toulouse.

"I’have always demonstrated against highways. There are enough highways. The car is not a necessity", explains, in the middle of the crowd, Martine, 74 years old. " I have always traveled by bike, I started well before fashion. Society can do without the car. You just need to organize yourself, have means of transport other than the car", she adds.

The demonstration against the A69 motorway project, organized by a collective comprising around twenty associations, unions or political parties, including Attac, Greenpeace, the CGT or the Ecologists (ex-EELV), brought together between 1’ ;nbsp;550 people, according to the prefecture and 5,000, according to the organizers.

Other alternatives

Some of the demonstrators had left Castres a little more than a week earlier by bike to "show that other solutions exist&quot ;. The arrival at the starting point of the event of the participants in this cycling convoy called "Cyclo Retour" was loudly applauded by the crowd.

The opponents also propose other alternatives, such as improving the existing national road or the rail service.

Some elected officials from Tarn have also criticized this project, but others, from different political sides, support the construction of this 53km section of motorway, which would reduce ;rsquo;around twenty minutes the Castres-Toulouse journey, currently around 1h20.

Supporters of the A69 also denounce "attacks and damage", such as the fire of four machines from the construction site during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday in Saïx (Tarn).