EN IMAGES. Demonstration against the ZFE in Rouen: nearly 300 people in the streets
By Adrian Filoche
Published on
The return to social movements began on Saturday September 3, 2022 at Rouen (Seine Maritime) by a rally against the ZFE-m (Low Emission Zone – Mobility). Unions and associations had called a few days ago for mobilization. As a reminder, since September 1, Crit’air 4 and 5 vehicles no longer have the right to travel in the 13 municipalities of the metropolis of Rouen included in the perimeter of the ZFE.
This Saturday, the demonstrators, fiercely opposed to a decision deemed “anti-social” and “anti-solidarity”, met around 3 p.m., at the bottom of rue Jeanne-d’Arc, at the level of the stop bus stop at the Theater des Arts. In total, they were around 300 after confirmation with the police mobilized to supervise the movement.
Traffic disrupted in Rouen
Spread out on the streets and sidewalks, the demonstrators disrupted the circulation of Teors, as well as that of cars using Jeanne-d’Arc street and its nearby axes. The street was blocked for a time by the police, and traffic from the Réseau Tip was interrupted. The atmosphere was calm, however, despite a virulent exchange between several demonstrators and annoyed people waiting for their bus.
To the motorists driving at reduced speed near the massed crowd, the demonstrators wielded irony by launching “bravo for the sticker! “. Leaflets were distributed, and passers-by invited to join the movement by demonstrators, smoke bombs in their hands and chanting: “Wake up! »
A group of demonstrators, mainly led by yellow vests, then took the direction of Rouen station, up rue Jeanne-d’Arc. The procession then penetrated inside the station, under the sometimes dumbfounded gaze of certain travelers. The chants echoed inside the building, without causing any damage.
The ZFE, “an attack on freedom”
Yellow vest on the back, Florence, living in the agglomeration of Rouen, was present today. She who declares herself “without label, just for the people”, is not concerned by the ZFE. Yet it is provided to him at heart to show his opposition. For her, the ZFE is a “segregation of the poorest” and “an attack on freedom”. And to add, annoyed: “The ecological justification does not hold. We could have stopped the private jets then! »
A little further on, Annie, withdrawn, does not hide her disapproval when she hears the word ZFE. “On a Crit’Air 5 running on diesel. We would have the means to change, but we don’t want to. Our car continues to drive very well,” she notes. According to her, “the public authorities are waking up too late”, and the ZFE is not going in the direction of ecology. “With electric cars, we’re going straight into the wall,” she says.
Around 4:10 p.m., the procession of yellow vests and that led by the CGT and the NPA finally met at the Palais de Justice metro stop, before entering rue Saint-Lô. A judicial source confirmed that there were indeed two distinct movements, a conventional and declared demonstration of around 200 people, as well as an “aggregate of some 120 demonstrators from the Yellow Vests and antivax movement”, which joined the union procession. Around 5 p.m., the demonstration was over.
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