At the beginning of the afternoon, the employees of the concessionaire of the future highway, Atosca, felled the first trees with a chainsaw and a bulldozer, to the taunts of the ZAD (Zone de aparat) occupants who shouted “assassins” or “support the squirrels” and were kept outside work areas by the gendarmes.
The large trees on this property are the last to be felled so that the clearing operations necessary for the continuation of the project are fully completed along the entire route, in the two departments – Haute-Garonne and Tarn – that it covers. At the very beginning of September, another ZAD was dismantled in the town of Saïx (Tarn)and all his trees fell.
“Capitalism”
In an order authorizing the flight of a drone to capture images, published on Sunday, the Haute-Garonne prefecture mentioned for Monday “a gendarmerie operation aimed at evicting occupants without rights or titles from the ZAD du Verger, in Verfeil, located on the route . of the A69 construction site.
This property was previously occupied by Alexandra Dupont, a 44-year-old tenant, who returned it to Atosca, who became the owner of the premises, at noon on Monday. “We are here to ensure the safety of Mrs. Dupont and everyone,” said Colonel Stéphane Dlongeville, one of the leaders of the current operation.
Before the police arrived at the scene, a young highway opponent, on the condition of anonymity and masked, indicated that she was “concentrated, indignant, anxious, sad and angry at the same time” in the face of the planned intervention. of the police. “It is capitalism that is crushing nature once again,” she said.