Several dozen activists have caused significant damage to the establishment. The building sector in the broad sense is one of the largest greenhouse gas transmitters.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
Latest spectacular action of climate activists, a cement plant from the “Pollueur” group Lafarge, near Marseille, was the target Saturday 10 December of a group of several dozen activists who caused significant Damage, according to information from Provence that the agency France-Presse (AFP) was confirmed on Sunday.
The action was carried out late Saturday afternoon against the Malle factory in Bouc-Bel-Air (Bouches-du-Rhône), AFP Loïc Leuliette, director of the Communication from Lafarge France. The Aix-en-Provence prosecutor’s office told AFP to have seized this file on Saturday evening and have opened a flagration investigation, entrusted to the gendarmerie.
“Greenwashing symbol”
In a video of this operation, posted on several sites, we see dozens of people dressed in white hooded combinations walk on a path. On other plans, activists dressed in the same combinations attack a hammer surveillance camera, a hose with ax. We also see what seems to be the beginning of fires in trucks as well as a graffiti “What is the dindions of the farge?” Bombed on a wall.
An anonymous text accompanying this video claims the action against the “cement maker”, specifying that it was carried out by “200 people” who “invaded and disarmed by surprise the Lafarge de la Malle factory Bouc-Bel-Air “.
The company filed a complaint, said Mr. Leuliette, denouncing “an action of incredible violence”, which caused “important damage” and left “very shocked staff”, even if he there was no physical confrontation. “The limits have really been crossed,” he denounced, while cement sites have already been the target of occupations or blockages by activists in the past, especially in June 2021 by Rébellion extinction.
Lafarge “makes every effort to restart as quickly as possible” The site which employs a total of 200 people, added Mr. Leuliette, claiming that “this factory is most ahead of decarbonation, after investments of Several million euros “.
“The ovens which has been targeted, long supplied by industrial waste and tires, are today the symbol of greenwashing”, on the contrary retorts the claim text. By phone, a person describing himself as “one of the activists present on the spot” told AFP that the action had been carried out by “people who organized and come from everywhere”. “Violence comes above all from these companies which invest billions to continue to produce by polluting. We consider that there is no longer the choice, this is the only possible answer today to be heard,” said Add this interlocutor.
“decarbonation pact”
The activists also recalled the questioning of Lafarge – which pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $ 778 million in the United States – for the links until 2014 of its subsidiary in Syria with terrorist groups, including the Islamic State organization (IS).
The building sector, in the broad sense, is one of the largest greenhouse gas transmitters, responsible for global warming. In France it represents 20 % of these emissions, against almost 30 % for transport.
Activists of the climate cause have multiplied spectacular actions in recent months, especially on works of art world known in different museums. In France they also interrupted a semi-final of the Roland-Garros tennis tournament or the Tour de France cycling.
The Minister Delegate for Industry Roland Lescure recalled on Twitter that the trunk factory was one of the “fifty priority sites to decarbon”, whose bosses were received in November by Emmanuel Macron to offer them one ” decarbonation pact “. “I will always prefer the action resolved to violent activism,” he wrote. “I always condemn those who, in the name of ecology, make violence the only expression of their struggle,” has tweeted his colleague from the ecological transition Christophe Béchu.