At the ZAD de Gonesse, like a little air of Notre-Dame-des-Landes

Their fight only started a week ago, but the militants who occupy it already dream of being heirs to those of Notre-Dame-des-Landes. After years of occupation of this Nantes grove, the government ended in 2018 by giving up building a new airport there.

"We have always said that we were inspired by Notre-Dame-des-Landes but we will not copy and paste," warns Bernard Loup, the president of the Collectif pour le Triangle de Gonesse (CPTG).

In the new ZAD de Gonesse (Val-d'Oise), the dispute is aimed at the project to build a Grand Paris Express station, which in 2030 will link Saint-Denis to Charles-de-Gaulle airport, and 'an activity zone on part of the 280 hectares of agricultural land on the site.

The sector had already escaped artificialization in November 2019, when Emmanuel Macron announced the abandonment of the Europacity commercial and leisure mega-complex.

Today, activists believe that the future station is contrary to current ecological issues and defend an alternative agricultural project.

On a rotating basis, around thirty people ensure a permanent presence on the site, where a few wooden cabins, pallets and sheets are set up which serve as dormitories or bathrooms. During the day, the workforce increases to around a hundred people who meet in the "library", the "saloon" or to build new shelters as quickly as possible.

"By coming together in large numbers with just the right amount of recovery, energy and a lot of courage, we can oppose this kind of huge projects that are airports, large shopping centers, ski slopes, stations. ... ", confides near a makeshift dormitory Malal (assumed name), an activist of the Extinction Rebellion movement.

"Hold"

"It gives Notre-Dame-des-Landes courage, it proves that these fights can be won," adds this 22-year-old audiovisual technician before giving way to the next generation after two freezing nights there.

Faced with the mobilization, the owner of the land, the Ile-de-France Public Land Establishment (EPFIF), declared its illegal occupation. The dispute must be studied by the Pontoise court on Wednesday morning.

Until a possible evacuation, "our goal is to hold the ZAD as long as possible. We do not disturb public order in any way", assures Bernard Loup. "We do not have farmers with tractors to come and block the CRS trucks", he adds, assuring that the collective "remains in non-violence".

The occupation of Notre-Dame-des-Landes gave rise to numerous violence between the police and "Zadists", until a major evacuation operation in April 2018, three months after the abandonment of the project airport.

"Here, it is not the bocage. The mobilization is not of the same order, we are close to Paris", confides Aline Pires, sympathizer of the CPTG and occupant of the ZAD, "it is also a force for us because that means that the places of power are close and so are the militant forces ".

The local authorities are raging. Marie-Christine Cavecchi, the president (LR) of the department of Val-d'Oise, castigates "extremist militants" whom she accuses of "taking hostage the future of an entire" underprivileged territory.

As for the president (Libres!) Of the Ile-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse, she denounced "an illegal occupation of the public domain which blocks the realization of a metro which is expected by 1,5 million inhabitants in the Val-d'Oise. "

Saturday, a few dozen residents of Villiers-le-Bel and Gonesse gathered to instead demand the modernization of existing transport.

RER D user, Ilham Sehhouli plague against the regular "complications" on this line, a more urgent issue according to her than building a station on the Triangle de Gonesse, "too far from the city". “Why remove the greenery?” She adds, “this is the little we have left here.”