Demonstration against the giant tropical greenhouse planned on the Opal Coast

"Tropicalia money machine", "The Opal Coast, it's not tropical" or even "Tropicalia anachronistic madness": at the call of thirty associations opposed to this project, the demonstrators met in border of the plot of some 9 ha where this greenhouse with a dome of 20.000 m2 and 35 m high is to be built, sheltering butterflies, hummingbirds, fish, reptiles and exotic "forest of trees".

Its promoters, who present it as the largest tropical greenhouse in the world, obtained a building permit at the end of 2019 for this former agricultural land transformed into a "concerted development zone" in 2010, between the municipalities of Verton and Rang-du- Fliers.

"We do not need the tropics under a bell here! That the promoters defend biodiversity where it is found, that is to say that they defend that of Hauts-de-France", launched Jean-Michel Jedraszak, spokesperson for the anti-Tropicalia collective, in the middle of a forest of Europe ecology-les Verts (EELV) flags.

"It's as stupid to build tropical greenhouses on the Opal Coast as it is to want to create ski slopes in the middle of the desert," he denounced.

"This greenhouse is an ecological disaster but above all it is one more insult to the faces of the inhabitants of Hauts-de-France: we are being given the gift of all the nonsense imaginable" protested. MEP Karima Delli, leader of the ecologist in Hauts-de-France for the regional elections.

"50 degrees north in the tropics, for everyone, all year round", such is the slogan of this project carried by a veterinarian and company manager, which promises to create around fifty direct jobs, as many as subcontractors , and hopes to attract around 500.000 annual visitors.

Estimated at 73 million euros, the project is partially subsidized by the region (2 million euros loan), the urban community (400.000 euros) and European funds (10 million).

The greenhouse, maintained at 26-28 ° C all year round, "will be autonomous in heating", thanks to "innovative technology" which "captures and stores the energy generated by the greenhouse effect", and "overproduces" half of the year, explained in August its designer, Cédric Guérin, to AFP.

On Sunday, Tropicalia's Twitter account broadcast a message denouncing "the liberticidal ecology advocated by those who feed on the fears of their fellow citizens".