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Clashes Flare at ‘Turboteuf’ Protest Against A69 Motorway

Organizers moved the forbidden weekend festival onto private property, prompting a 1,500-strong gendarmerie deployment that ended in stone-throwing and tear gas.

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Overview

  • Up to 2,000 activists camped at Château de Scopont from July 4 to 6 for the “Turboteuf” protest against the A69 motorway project.
  • Prefect Laurent Buchaillat issued orders banning anti-A69 gatherings in 17 Tarn communes over “manifest risks of serious public-order disturbances.”
  • Pro-motorway interests have appealed the February court suspension and are backing a parliamentary bill to retroactively validate the project’s environmental approvals.
  • Organizers evaded the prefectural ban by holding the festival on Bernard d’Ingrando’s private estate without formal legal responsibility.
  • Authorities deployed roughly 1,500 gendarmes, helicopters and armored vehicles to contain the protest, responding to stone-throwing with tear gas.