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This article is more than 1 year old

French police have used teargas in an attempt to clear anti-capitalist squatters from the site of an abandoned airport project.

About 2,500 riot police made a pre-dawn raid in Notre-Dame-des-Landes to evict about 250 activists.

The squatters have occupied the site for 10 years to prevent the airport from being built, but refused to leave after the plans were dropped earlier this year, saying they sought to construct an alternative way of life.



The government had warned they would be evicted and carried out this threat on Monday morning.

The protesters threw petrol bombs and set fire to barricades made of tyres and wooden pallets to obstruct the police’s advance.



An eclectic group of anti-capitalists, eco-warriors and squatters, known as Zadists, joined a handful of farmers on the site in 2008.



Over the past 50 years, successive governments have waded into the debate over the controversial plan to build an airport hub serving western France. The half century had been marked by consultations, arguments and indecision until Emmanuel Macron announced in January that the €580m (£505m) project would be abandoned once and for all.

An attempt in 2012 failed to dislodge settlers of what is called the ZAD – zone d’aménagement différée (zone for future development) officially and zone à défendre (zone to defend) to protesters.

The eviction, named Opération César, led to clashes between the squatters and the police, and the government backed down following public outrage at the violent scenes.

Many of the squatters had abandoned their tents and caravans and built permanent homes, shacks and cabins, or had occupied abandoned farms, making them habitable and planting the land around.

There was a boulangerie, a brewery, a pirate radio station, an online newspaper and a weekly vegetable market.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Officers in riot gear move towards the anti-capitalist activists. Photograph: Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images

At the end of last year, Zadists told the Guardian they were seeking an alternative, simpler and more utopian way of life.

“The squatters and the farmers here are building something extraordinary, something that goes back to the simple life of our grandparents,” one said. “We are able to produce what we need, and we don’t need a lot.”

At 3.22am, Zadist organisers, prepared for eviction, diffused an alert that the police were on their way, and eight minutes later, they set a barricade alight to prevent officers from entering the site. Protesters claimed 70 police buses had surrounded the 1,650-hectare (4,080 acre) site.

Gérard Collomb, the French interior minister, said police would remain “for as long as necessary” to ensure the site was not reoccupied.

End of la ZAD? France’s ‘utopian’ anti-airport community faces bitter last stand Read more

He said those evicted would be offered alternative accommodation. “Nobody will be left on the street,” Collomb said.

In December, the squatters were bullish, saying they would not give up on their dream. “The state institutions have no power here. We have organised our lives without them – that’s what they don’t like. Even if they expel us, we’ll come back … After a month, there will be thousands of us,” one warned.

By midday on Monday, the police prefecture said 10 out of an estimated 97 squats at the site had been dismantled and one person had been arrested for throwing a firebomb. A gendarme was injured in the eye and taken to hospital, but released after treatment.

The eviction operation is expected to last several days.</s>A police officer was injured after violence erupted in northwestern France on Monday when the police dispersed a group of eco-activists and demolished their tents from a site that had been planned as a new airport.

On Monday, some 2,500 police officers conducted a raid at the site at Notre-Dame-des-Landes, near Nantes, where a group of activists have been camping for years to prevent the construction of an airport, the plan for which had been dropped by the present government, headed by Emmanuel Macron, in January.</s>French police clash with eco-activists as they clear abandoned airport site

French gendarmes stand on a road near burning debris during an evacuation operation in the zoned ZAD (Deferred Development Zone) in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, near Nantes, France, April 9, 2018. — Reuters pic NOTRE-DAME-DES-LANDES, April 9 — French police fired teargas and stun grenades and were pelted with stones during a dawn swoop to clear eco-activists and anarchists from a site in western France that had been planned as a new airport.

The site in Notre-Dame-des-Landes had been squatted for years by opponents of the plan to build a €580 million (RM2.75 billion) airport which the government decided to drop in January.

Some 2,500 police took part in the evacuation which authorities said started at 6am.

Police had already blocked surrounding roads as early at 3:30am, a Reuters journalist saw, while protesters set fire to barricades.

One police officer sustained an eye injury and a protester was arrested, said a police official who described the clashes as sporadic and relatively minor.

Ministers said the squatters had been ordered to leave after they had succeeded in getting the airport project halted.

“We want to put an end to a lawless zone,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

“Illegal constructions must be brought down for things to come back to normal in Notre-Dame-des-Landes,” Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told Europe 1 radio.

Plans for a “Great West” trans-Atlantic gateway to France and Europe were first considered in the 1960s and the Notre-Dame-des-Landes site was identified in 1967, but the project stalled until being revived in 2000.

Supporters of the airport plan, designed to handle 4 million passengers a year initially, said it would have helped economic development in the Loire-Atlantique region. An old, inner-city airport 30km to the south was congested and a security risk, they said.

But opponents said it was too costly, environmentally damaging and that there was another under-utilised airport 110km to the north, near Rennes in Brittany.

Construction giant Vinci has said it is ready to discuss government compensation for the loss of its contract to develop Notre-Dame-des-Landes. — Reuters</s>NOTRE-DAME-DES-LANDES, France (Reuters) - French police fired teargas and stun grenades and were pelted with stones during a dawn swoop to clear eco-activists and anarchists from a site in western France that had been planned as a new airport.

 The site in Notre-Dame-des-Landes had been squatted for years by opponents of the plan to build a 580-million-euro ($710 million) airport which the government decided to drop in January.

 Some 2,500 police took part in the evacuation which authorities said started at 6 a.m. (12 a.m. ET). Police had already blocked surrounding roads as early at 3:30 a.m., a Reuters journalist saw, while protesters set fire to barricades.

 One police officer sustained an eye injury and a protester was arrested, said a police official who described the clashes as sporadic and relatively minor.

 Ministers said the squatters had been ordered to leave after they had succeeded in getting the airport project halted. "We want to put an end to a lawless zone," the Interior Ministry said in a statement. 

 "Illegal constructions must be brought down for things to come back to normal in Notre-Dame-des-Landes," Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told Europe 1 radio.

 Plans for a "Great West" trans-Atlantic gateway to France and Europe were first considered in the 1960s and the Notre-Dame-des-Landes site was identified in 1967, but the project stalled until being revived in 2000. 

 Supporters of the airport plan, designed to handle 4 million passengers a year initially, said it would have helped economic development in the Loire-Atlantique region. An old, inner-city airport 30 km (20 miles) to the south was congested and a security risk, they said.

 But opponents said it was too costly, environmentally damaging and that there was another underutilized airport 110 km (70 miles) to the north, near Rennes in Brittany.

 Construction giant Vinci has said it is ready to discuss government compensation for the loss of its contract to develop Notre-Dame-des-Landes. 

 

 (Reporting by Guillaume Frouin in Notre-Dame-des-Landes and Emmanuel Jarry in Paris; Writing by Ingrid Melander and Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)</s>France's police for rural and suburban areas – the Gendarmerie – on Monday deployed nearly 2,500 officers toclear an anarchist camp in Notre-Dame-des-Landes near the western city of Nantes.

One gendarme was hurt in the eye with a flare as police clashed with around 100 squatters in the so-called ZAD or "zone to defend."

The militant activists — known as "zadistes" in France — set up camp in 2008. The site had been earmarked for a new airport nearly 50 years ago before the government finally dropped plans to build the controversial hub in January.

President Emmanuel Macron argued that after he decided to scrap plans to build the airport, the squatters had to leave. But they refused.

Over the last 10 years, the eco-warriors, farmers and anti-capitalists, who had turned the area into a utopian experiment in autonomous living, put up makeshift buildings, which the government says have to go so the site can be redeveloped.

"Illegal constructions must be brought down for things to come back to normal in Notre-Dame-des-Landes," Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told Europe 1 radio, stressing that "order will be restored within a few weeks" and that people would not be arrested.

The activists vowed to stay put ahead of the evacuation operation, arguing that their camp was a model of sustainable farming in an area with unique flora and fauna.

The idea for the "Grand Ouest" airport, which would have served the Atlantic coast, was first floated in the 1960s, but the project stalled until being revived in 2000. An existing inner-city airport in the region was too congested, supporters argued.

But critics said the new airport would have been too costly, environmentally damaging and that there was another under-utilized airport 110 km (70 miles) to the north, near Rennes in Brittany.</s>A protestor walks past burning debris as French gendarmes continue an evacuation operation in the zoned ZAD (Deferred Development Zone) in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, near Nantes, France, April 9, 2018. — Reuters pic NOTRE-DAME-DES-LANDES, April 9 — French police this morning started to evacuate hundreds of eco-activists and anarchists squatting on a site in western France that had been planned as a new airport, and which had sparked clashes with previous governments.

The evacuation had started at 6am Paris time, the French interior ministry said.

In January, President Emmanuel Macron’s government dropped plans for the €580 million (RM2.75 billion) airport in Notre-Dame-des-Landes in western France, a sensitive decision that past governments had shirked for decades.

Supporters of Notre-Dame-Des-Landes, designed to handle 4 million passengers a year initially, said it would aid economic development in the Loire-Atlantique region.

They argued an old, inner-city airport 30km to the south was congested and a security risk.

But opponents said it was too costly, environmentally unfriendly and that there was another under-utilised airport 110km to the north, near Rennes in Brittany.

Construction giant Vinci has said it is ready to discuss government compensation for loss of its earlier contract to develop Notre-Dame-des-Landes. — Reuters</s>PARIS: French police on Monday (Apr 9) started to evacuate hundreds of eco-activists and anarchists squatting on a site in western France that had been planned as a new airport, and which had sparked clashes with previous governments.

The evacuation had started at 0400 GMT (12.00pm Singapore time), the French interior ministry said.

In January, President Emmanuel Macron's government dropped plans for the €580 million (US$712.5 million) airport in Notre-Dame-des-Landes in western France, a sensitive decision that past governments had shirked for decades.

Supporters of Notre-Dame-Des-Landes, designed to handle four million passengers a year initially, said it would aid economic development in the Loire-Atlantique region.

They argued an old, inner-city airport 30km to the south was congested and a security risk.

But opponents said it was too costly, environmentally unfriendly and that there was another under-utilised airport 110km to the north, near Rennes in Brittany.

Construction giant Vinci has said it is ready to discuss government compensation for loss of its earlier contract to develop Notre-Dame-des-Landes.</s>PARIS, April 9 (Reuters) - French police on Monday started to evacuate hundreds of eco-activists and anarchists squatting on a site in western France that had been planned as a new airport, and which had sparked clashes with previous governments.

The evacuation had started at 0600 Paris time (0400 GMT), the French interior ministry said.

In January, President Emmanuel Macron's government dropped plans for the 580-million-euro ($712-million) airport in Notre-Dame-des-Landes in western France, a sensitive decision that past governments had shirked for decades.

Supporters of Notre-Dame-Des-Landes, designed to handle 4 million passengers a year initially, said it would aid economic development in the Loire-Atlantique region.

They argued an old, inner-city airport 30 km (19 miles) to the south was congested and a security risk.

But opponents said it was too costly, environmentally unfriendly and that there was another under-utilised airport 110 km (68 miles) to the north, near Rennes in Brittany.

Construction giant Vinci has said it is ready to discuss government compensation for loss of its earlier contract to develop Notre-Dame-des-Landes. ($1=0.8147 euros) (Reporting by Tangi Salaun Writing by Sudip Kar-Gupta Editing by Clarence Fernandez)</s>French police on Monday started to evacuate hundreds of eco-activists and anarchists squatting on a site in western France that had been planned as a new airport, and which had sparked clashes with previous governments, Reuters reports.

The evacuation had started at 0600 Paris time (12 a.m. ET), the French interior ministry said.

In January, President Emmanuel Macron’s government dropped plans for the 580-million-euro ($712-million) airport in Notre-Dame-des-Landes in western France, a sensitive decision that past governments had shirked for decades.

Supporters of Notre-Dame-Des-Landes, designed to handle 4 million passengers a year initially, said it would aid economic development in the Loire-Atlantique region.</s>Violence is flaring in western France for the second day as police attempt to raze an anarchist commune on the site of an abandoned airport.Law enforcement officials were mobilized for evictions in Notre-Dame-des-Landes commune, 20km from the city of Nantes on Monday. Some 250 activists occupied the 1,650-hectare site, once reserved for a proposed airport, calling it their "Zone a Defendre" (Zone to be Defended).On Tuesday, tensions continued with Molotov cocktails flying through clouds of tear gas, local media reported. The protesters set up barricades made of tires and electricity poles in an effort to keep the police at bay."Things are going to be more complicated [on Tuesday], the Pays-de-la-Loire regional prefect said, adding that on Monday police deployed some 2,500 officers to evict the camp residents.RT's Charlotte Dubenskij and the Ruptly crew were caught up in the action amid the standoff between police officers and eco-squatters.Environmental activists have protested against the construction of the airport in Notre-Dame-des-Landes since 2008. Supporters of the project argued it would boost economic development in Pays-de-la-Loire, while opponents claimed it was too environmentally unfriendly.After long debates, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced in January that France would abandon the project."This is the logical decision given the dead-end in which this project has found itself," Philippe stated. Authorities later ordered the activists to evacuate the area by March 31 or otherwise face eviction.
Around 2,500 police armed with tear gas launch a raid in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, France, in a bid to force the removal of 250 activists who have occupied the site of the proposed Aéroport du Grand Ouest for ten years to prevent its construction. The proposed airport is abandoned but the activists refuse to leave their community.