The one who comes by plane to the great Paris, at the gigantic airport Roissy-Charles De Gaulle, can see through the window the wide fields and gardens surrounding the city. On the one hand, the runways of the aircraft – next to it is a second airport, Le Bourget – on the other hand, the network of railways and highways, the shopping centres of all kinds… Is it not a miracle to produce over 700 hectares of wheat, rape, sunflower or vegetables of all kinds at the gates of Paris?

These camps do not have to last long if, anyway, after expropriating 300 hectares of fertile land, they manage to build by 2024 the mega EuropaCity park, which must abandon the small Euro Disney. If the Notre Dame des Landes airport project in the Ar Naoned area is the most famous social movement in the French State, the EuropaCity project has no less merit than going into the same category.

Pay attention. Theme park in 15 hectares, consisting of water parks, snow and adventure. A stable circus on 5 hectares, with show room, exhibition, film center and cultural space, aimed at young people. 23 hectares for shopping centres, two more for restaurants, two for conferences and seminars, 10 hectares for parks, 7 more for urban gardens – after the final destruction of authentic gardens – 2,700 rooms between the new hotels... And the strip is dragging on until it's 300 acres.

The investment is the same size: EUR 3,100 million. Such a pharaonic project requires the existence of jigging corporations. Immochan, the real estate of the Auchan group, one of the champions of the shopping malls. To say Auchan is the Mulliez group, that is, Jardiland, Decathlon, Simply, Kiabi, Alcampo, Leroy-Merlin, Bricomart, Norauto, Midas, Sabeco… and many more. The Mullis are one of the richest families in France. Operation EuroCity has the participation of Wanda China, the most powerful in the world in construction promotions and cinemas, with 130,000 employees, who will deploy their sports, sanitary, technological roots, etc.

Who could face this pair of Tartalos in the hope of surviving? At least professional politicians. The Grand Paris Aménagement, a public entity in charge of strategic planning in and around Paris, soon convinced the Gonesse City Hall of the benefits of the project.

In case of doubt, in 2014 Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (PS) stated: “With the expected 11,500 direct jobs, EuropaCity is a top-level project. It will structure our territory and revive the economy.” And, by the government's decision, the majority's moods soon arrived, the major museums in Paris joined EuropaCity and the main leaders of metropolitan Paris, the engine of France.

Gonesse is a French town and municipality, located in the department of Val-d’Oise, in metropolitan Paris, with a population of 26,000. 2000. The following year he appeared on all TVs, as supersonic Concorde had caught fire in his lands and barely exploded on the street houses.

Destroy the fields, waste public money

The pressure of the great Paris had long been in the vicinity. The continuous loss of land from the two largest airports, shopping malls, highways, infrastructure of all kinds… which worsened in the 1990s. The Gonesse Triangle is one of the few agricultural areas that has survived in recent decades. But not by the miracle of the gods. For a long time, Europa City has found the only incandescent stone that will bother it: the Collectif pour le Triangle de Gonesse (CTG) group, made up of 15 associations in the region.

Militants and local associations have known in their struggles the complicated dynamics that begin with the planning of the territory, have learned to use the loopholes provided by law and procedures. In 2017, there are still hectares of land left for the paralysis of some major projects.

During the public debate on the granting of permits to Europe City, the collective CTG, in addition to mobilizing the citizens, has put on the table alternatives, comparable to the great project of Mulliez and Auchan, built by four social and professional planning agents, who seek to revitalize the region and integrate it into the network of agrarian megápolis.

They also denounce the fraud that is about to be committed with public money: “Although it is said that Europe City should be financed exclusively by private money, in addition to expropriating cheap land, it essentially needs public money to build meters and highways, therefore, they are scamming the general interest. And those employment figures quoted by some voters, such as Auchan, have been denied by all independent research. It is a job that they are going to create in exchange for destroying other jobs, in cities and shopping centres that no longer have customers. That is why many voices have been heard denouncing this disastrous project in the ecological, economic and social fields, as well as violating the commitments made by France at COP21.”

And what do the peasants say? If, somewhere, the murder of the peasants that sociologist Pierre Bitoun has put in the title of his last book – Le Sacrifice des paysans, a catastrophe sociale et anthropologique – has occurred in the vast region of the megápolis of Paris. On the one hand, the intolerable pressure of the city, on the other, the industrialisation of agriculture, now there are only a few farmers left in the fields of Gonesse.

Some of them have been presented by the web Reporterre in the chronic Ces ultimes terricoles qui résistent en core à la bétonisation du grand Paris. Tired and desperate, some roam on already abandoned grounds, while they can, they have all felt the claw of the gigantic city ever closer, the brush ever tightened in the throat. “I do not know what needs to be done,” said Jacques Poix. For them, land is nothing more than a business.”

In August, the Commissioner appointed by the authorities to study the public interest of the dossier has published a report against EuropaCity. The promoters did not like it, but they replied that they do not care about this Commissioner’s recommendation, because it is not binding, but they have the competence to decide that they have the City Hall and the authorities. And we politicians know what they're going to do.