Arrests at Paris Roissy-CDG after air traffic protests

Around 40 protesters were arrested after the day of action, said the Agence France-Presse, after a police source source said: “[The activists] entered by force [at around 9:00] and were stopped by law enforcement officers at Terminal 2A on the tarmac.”

Although the protesters managed to get close to where planes are parked, they did not “manage to access the runways”, the source told newspaper Le Monde. Air traffic was not affected, according to the police.

But the organisers, including environmental associations ANV-COP 21 and Alternatiba, said that “87 people were able to access the tarmac at Roissy and stop the takeoff of a plane”. Protesters wore T-shirts and held placards.

The demonstrations were part of a nationwide “day of action” called by ANV-COP 21 and Alternatiba, demanding a drop in air traffic, “a conversion of the [air traffic] sector”, and the end to a major planned extension of Roissy Terminal T4.

The project is expected to extend the airport’s capacity by 40 million passengers per year.

Association Action Climat Paris tweeted a video of the action, and said: “Terminal 4 [will be] the equivalent of traffic at Orly [airport] added to that of Roissy. Together let us say ‘stop’ to this climate-killing, useless project.”

Further protests took place elsewhere in the airport, including one that was attended by MPs from La France Insoumise party, Clémentine Autain and Manon Aubry.

Jean-François Julliard, director general at Greenpeace, who was present at the protests in Roissy, said: “We must stop enlarging airports, such as here at Roissy, with the Terminal T4 project, and we must end flights that are [for journeys] possible to do by train, and develop more night trains.”

Protests were also called in Marseille, Lille, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Nantes, Poitiers, Tours, Clermont-Ferrand, Bayonne and Chambéry.

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