A69 motorway construction site: we explain the implications of the retroactive validation law that Renaissance wants to have adopted

While the courts allowed the controversial A69 construction site to resume at the end of May, its supporters are defending a law in the chamber on Monday aimed at preventing a work stoppage.

It's a legal and political battle. On Monday, June 2, the National Assembly will examine a bill put forward by the majority to retroactively validate the environmental permits for the A69 motorway construction site between Castres and Toulouse . This text aims to recognize as valid the permits canceled by the courts at the end of February , in order to avoid another halt to the project. On May 28, the administrative court of appeal temporarily lifted this suspension, authorizing the resumption of work.

Adopted in the Senate , the text arrives in a tense climate in the chamber, where its defenders, including the deputy of the Renaissance party Jean Terlier, denounce an "obstruction" of the ecologist and rebellious deputies , authors of numerous amendments. The A69, approximately 60 km long, is a project estimated at more than a billion euros, carried out by the company Atosca . Presented as a tool to open up the southern Tarn, it arouses strong opposition, particularly ecological.

It is in this context that the majority decided to include this Validation bill on the Assembly's agenda, during a half-day reserved for the Renaissance group on Monday. The text thus aims to prevent a further shutdown of the construction site by affirming that it responds to a "compelling reason of major public interest" (RIIPM), a recognition that allows for derogation from certain rules of environmental law, including the protection of species.

Led by Jean Terlier, the Renaissance MP for Tarn, this bill seeks to retroactively validate the project's environmental permits, which were nevertheless annulled by the courts. Adopted by the Senate on May 23, the text has already passed its first milestone. It will be examined in public session after being validated by the Assembly's Sustainable Development Committee. For Jean Terlier, this is a response to a "compelling reason of general interest ," particularly that of opening up a rural region.

If the text is also adopted by the National Assembly, the legal arguments raised by opponents can still be examined, but their weight will be less. It was precisely the absence of RIIPM that justified the invalidation of the environmental permits in February, the Toulouse court reported in a press release .

On the opponents' side, the bill, perceived as a circumvention of justice, is provoking fierce protest. "The right is setting a dangerous precedent: that of forcing through any contested project in defiance of legal procedures ," declared the Senate's Greens group in a press release published on May 15. They also denounce a "barely disguised attack on the rule of law ." " This decision will present the magistrates of the Court of Appeal with a fait accompli, and therefore endorses the right to destroy the environment by trampling on the law," wrote the rebellious MP Anne Stambach-Terrenoir on X, while her party speaks of "a forced passage" aimed at "crushing a judicial decision," reports AFP.

In the Assembly, La France Insoumise and Les Ecologistes have thus tabled almost all of the 695 amendments, a strategy of parliamentary obstruction to slow down the examination of the text, scheduled to start at 3:45 p.m. This number of amendments could prevent the text from being submitted to a vote before midnight. deadline of the session. Otherwise , the bill will be abandoned, for lack of having been examined in time.

In addition, LFI has also filed a motion of prior rejection, a parliamentary tool that allows for the outright abandonment of the text before it is even examined. This motion will be examined as soon as the debate opens in the chamber. Jean Terlier, for his part, denounced "a deliberate obstructionist approach to avoid discussion and a vote on the law, which was widely adopted in committee," reports AFP.

On the night of Sunday to Monday, activists from the National Tree Surveillance Group (GNSA) " set up in a tree opposite the National Assembly " to protest against the proposed law, the association announced.

The A69 was originally scheduled to be opened by the end of 2025 , but this deadline will not be met, according to the company Atosca, which is in charge of the work. To complete the project, the company must repatriate around a thousand employees and numerous machines to the Tarn region.