Legions of gendarmes moved in at around 6am on Monday morning with the intention of clearing out the most radical protesters who have been occupying the fields near the city of Nantes for years.
The rural 1,600-hectare site has become a protest camp or ZAD in French (Zone to Defend) with barricades having been set up on roads around the area.
After announcing in January it would be dropping the controversial plan to build a new airport at the site the government had asked the occupiers to leave. However many vowed to resist and the government promised they would return with force.
“We will put a stop to the no-go zone which has flourished in this area for nearly 10 years,” Prime Minister Edouard Philippe had said.
The protesters known as “Zadistes” have promised to resist the police and early on Monday a gendarmes was left with an eye injury after being hit by what reports said was an homemade firework.
The Zadistes new the evacuation operation would come at some point and have been preparing for months. They warned the police would come up against “determined and physical resistance”.
According to reports police fired tear gas at the Zadistes who responded by setting fire to barricades.Protesters have vowed to publish videos of any police brutality and some have warned that the operation has echoes of an attempt by police to clear another ZAD site in Sivens in 2014. That ended up with the death of a protester Remi Fraisse after he was shot by a rubber bullet fired by police.
Many of those who occupy the land have set up small farms and built huts and have registered with authorities, but on Monday police were ordered to clear out the most radicalized occupiers who are hardcore anti-capitalists.
Activists moved onto the site in 2008 and have since built up a community that they bill as a utopia of sustainable farming and political debate.
Security forces are wary as a similar attempt to evict the protesters in 2012 descended into clashes, with more than 1,000 police trying unsuccessfully for weeks to oust them.
Reports in conservative media have depicted the protesters as radicals prepared to use violence to defend their cause — to the annoyance of some protesters, who say they have been demonised.
Authorities nonetheless are approaching the eviction with trepidation, not least after the death of green activist Remi Fraisse, hit by a stun grenade in police clashes, sparked riots in 2014.
The airport camp is well-defended with its watchtower, ditches and a pirate radio station to pass messages, although the protesters had promised to restore access to roads they have previously blocked with tyres and barricades.
However those barricades were restored in recent days.
Source:thelocal.fr