They intend to protest against evictions requests from Vinci, the company responsible for building the airport in Notre-Dame-des-Landes …
The protest against the airport project of Notre-Dame-des-Landes is officially over but Farmers have decided to play for extra time. A few dozen of them refused on Saturday to clear the Nantes bridge, requiring that the President Francois Hollande cancels expulsion procedures.
While the organizers had planned to call from 3.30pm dispersal of the demonstration which gathered Saturday at least 7,200 people around Nantes, many organizations announced through a megaphone that they were pursuing an indefinite occupation of large Cheviré bridge, which crosses the Loire, as Mr. Holland would not give up the expulsion of the inhabitants of the site planned for the future Nantes airport.
One night lock
At first, between 80 and 100 tractors intended to block the access to the bridge overnight, l’organisation paysanne COPAIN44, told AFP Vincent Delabouglise. The demonstrators that came on foot or bike started to leave.
Opponents of the airport project denounce a hearing scheduled for Wednesday at the High Court of Nantes during which the Vinci Group, constructor of the airport project, should seek the immediate expulsion of fifteen inhabitants of the site planned for infrastructure.
Bruno Gray, president of Association of organic farmers of the Loire-Atlantique, this threat contradicts a commitment made in 2012 by Francois Hollande to freeze evictions until all appeals filed before the court have not been heard. “There is no question of letting the threat of eviction on colleagues from Notre-Dame-des-Landes,” said Mr. Gray told AFP. “We refuse breaking this moral contract that was the commitment of Francois Hollande.”
