Protest against the Seine-Nord Europe Canal, a demonstration banned by the prefecture

The demonstration was announced Saturday afternoon in the Oisy-le-Verger area, where construction of a giant lock began in June on the border between Pas-de-Calais and Nord. However, the route planned by the organizers was rejected by the prefectures of both departments.

They cite "a very high risk of serious public disorder" and state their intention to "protect sensitive areas of the construction site." They indicate that they submitted "several alternative route proposals" to the organizers, who rejected them.

The prefectures therefore issued an order on Thursday prohibiting "any demonstration and any gathering" of a "protest nature" in the area where the opponents planned to march.

The organizers, who hope to gather "several thousand people", will file an appeal with the administrative court of Lille, considering the "counter-proposals" of the prefectures to be "ridiculous", a spokesperson for the Earth Uprisings told AFP.

Among the organizers are the Méga Canal Non Merci collective, the Seine and Earth Uprisings, Extinction Rebellion and the Confédération Paysanne.

France Unbowed announced that its leader and presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon would be present on Saturday. The Greens from the Nord and Pas-de-Calais regions also called for a demonstration.

A militant "associative and festive" village is set up in parallel from Thursday evening to Sunday in Villers-au-Tertre (Nord), with round tables, workshops and concerts.

The canal project aims to create by 2032 a large-gauge waterway to facilitate the transport of goods between the Paris region and the major ports of the North Sea.

Its opponents denounce the soaring costs, its significant environmental impact and question the promise of a massive shift from road transport to river transport.

In early April, the Court of Auditors warned of the "significant overrun" in the costs of the Seine-Nord Europe canal, which have almost doubled compared to initial forecasts, reaching 7,3 billion euros at current prices according to the latest estimates.

"It is high time to stop everything," Claire Aubois, spokesperson for the Seine Uprisings, told AFP, deploring a "deadly project that will monopolize the territory's water" and "increase the flow of goods," while "the Canal du Nord is already there" for river transport.

Last October, more than a thousand people had already demonstrated in the Oise region to call for a "stop to construction" of the canal, an immense infrastructure 107 km long and 54 m wide.

The march took place peacefully under heavy surveillance.

The canal project, "it has been under discussion for 40 years", is now "authorized" and has entered "a concrete phase" but "we naturally remain open to listening to all stakeholders", Jean-Yves Dareaud, Artois-Cambrésis territory director at the Société du Canal Seine-Nord Europe (SCSNE), told AFP this week.

"It is still a transport decarbonization project," and its environmental compensation measures will be "monitored over time," he stressed.