France deployed more than 2,000 members of the security forces to the Maurienne Alpine valley in the country’s east on Saturday as hundreds of activists prepared to defy a ban to protest against plans for a high-speed train linking the French city of Lyon with Turin, Italy. The activists aim to protest against the environmental impacts of the train link.
Authorities expect some 5,000 people to take part in the protest, and AFP on Friday reported that hundreds had already poured into the small commune of La Chapelle, setting up makeshift camps in the fields and meadows in a zone bordering the area of the banned demonstration.
An administrative court in Grenoble on Friday upheld a previous court decision to ban the protest, citing the difficulty of ensuring protesters’ security along their proposed route. The court also pointed to the risk to some of the area’s “particularly sensitive sites” and the potential of “radical protesters” joining the rally.
The demonstration has been organised by French and Italian environmental groups which say the project, which involves creating a 260-kilometre tunnel system through the Alps, has already led to the drying up of several natural water sources in the area.
The European Union backs the €26 billion Lyon-Turin high-speed train link. Seventy percent of the railway system will run through France and 30 percent through Italy
Some 2,000 police officers and gendarmes had been deployed to the valley ahead of Saturday’s protest, according to AFP. They have already confiscated more than 100 sharp objects or other dangerous materials, including fireworks
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
