- In the early morning of Monday, and because of numerous incidents, the gendarmes have evacuated a number of people from the ZAD area of the Kolbsheim Forest, France.
The Moulin ZAD is an area contrary to the Western variant of Strasbourg (GCO). It has been occupied since 2017 with the aim of cutting the road that the company Vinci plans to carry out. On Monday, however, more than 500 French police officers were stationed on the site and evicted the area.
According to Reporter, around five in the morning there was a mermaid sound in the forest of Kolbsheim, which announced the visit of the gendarmes. The members of the ZAD and some of the neighbours of the surrounding villages took place on the edge of the forest, surrounding the area. After the first police charges, however, they withdrew at the entrance to the ZAD, where they were held.
An hour after the riots, taking advantage of the calm atmosphere for a moment, an anti-variant fighting activist approached police officers, including the mayor of Kolbsheim, Dany Karcher. However, the attempt at negotiation was not successful, so the dispute lasted for another two hours. Environmental MEP Kamina Delli, among the wounded and gasified by the police.
Activists on the spot tried to resist tear gas and police burdens, but the gendarmes evicted the ZAD at seven in the morning. On Monday afternoon, a demonstration was held in which the activists were recharged by the police.
What is the project?
The project for the western variant of Strasbourg was born in the 1970s and has since sparked debate between the opponents and supporters of the project. The project was initially abandoned, but twenty years later it was rethought.
Two are the objectives of the project between Vendenheim and Duttlenheim: Speed up the transport of the A35 motorway through Strasbourg and facilitate the transport of trucks from north to south of Europe. However, the negative views expressed by the anti-project activists, some public studies, the National Council for Nature Protection and the Biodiversity Agency, have called into question the alleged benefits of the GCO.
The debate, at the end of August, approved the project and approved the construction of the variant.