French police used tear gas at a rally against the construction of a road

French police fired tear gas in response to the aggression of eco-activists who staged a rally against the construction of the A69 motorway in the south of the country. This was reported on July 5 by the newspaper Sud Ouest.

According to the newspaper, the protest, taking place near the road under construction, which will run between the French cities of Toulouse and Castres (Tarn), was banned by the local prefecture. However, this did not prevent the activists from organizing a rally, which was attended by about a thousand people.

​​"Protesters against the A69 began marching near a construction site, where they threw stones at the police, who responded with tear gas," the publication says.

It is noted that hundreds of protesters, some of whom were wearing masks and black clothes, then left the private territory of the Skopont castle they occupied, blocking the national road with tree branches and chanting the slogan "no rubble."

French President Emmanuel Macron, commenting on the situation, expressed support for the police officers who are in the place where the action is taking place.

"We support our law enforcement agencies, which, mobilized at the construction site of the A69 motorway this weekend, are resisting aggressive demonstrators," he wrote on his page on the social network X (ex. Twitter).

Macron stressed that the government is fully committed to maintaining the republican order and noted that force must remain within the law.

On May 19, the French police also resorted to the use of tear gas at a demonstration of taxi workers. Taxi drivers were not satisfied with the fact of a possible revision of the terms of compensation for the transportation of hospital patients at the expense of state medical insurance, which is scheduled to be adopted in the fall of 2025. On the same day, French farmers on tractors blocked major highways in the north of the country, urging them not to exclude important provisions for industry workers from the draft law on "eliminating restrictions in agriculture."