In Toulouse, the fairgrounds renew their mobilization and envisage an intensification
They are authorized to mobilize every day, on weekdays, as long as a date for a meeting with the town hall has not been fixed. The fairgrounds of the Saint-Michel festival, supposed to start this Friday in Toulouse, are showing up again this Tuesday. Like the day before, the rally starts from 2:30 p.m., at the Toulouse-Nord tollbooth. The trucks will then leave on the ring road, and the grand boulevards of Toulouse until 7 p.m. The operation will be renewed and intensified as the days go by, unless Mayor Jean-Luc Moudenc agrees to set a meeting date, warn the mobilized fairground people. They say they are ready to suspend the movement if the municipality agrees to this round table.
Showmen and the town hall of Toulouse have been in conflict for weeks about the Saint-Michel festival. It took place in recent years near the Zenith; but the town hall decided to move it. The City has offered fairground stallholders to settle temporarily, this year in any case, on Ramier Island. Problem, according to the fairground: it would take either major work for the place to be suitable for the reception of rides and the general public. The first rides should have been set up last Friday, so that the party could start on September 23. Or, the places are not in good condition. The carnies are temporarily accommodated at Ondesall to the north of the Haute-Garonne.
A mobilization that could intensify
The dialogue between the showmen and the town hall seems completely at a standstill. Each accuses the other of refusing dialogue. The mayor of Toulouse, Jean-Luc Moudenc, thus denounced last week a form of hostage-taking, and was annoyed at the method chosen to be heard. The showmen, for their part, felt that this was their last chance to save the Saint-Michel festival, which supports nearly 90 families.
If no meeting date is set by then, the showmen are authorized to mobilize again on Wednesday, from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., then Thursday and Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. They are ready to mobilize for the entire duration of the Saint-Michel festival, i.e. until October 16. The could according to some harden next week, with blockages in the city center, or even filter dams. There is no demonstration planned for the weekend, to limit the discomfort, explain the fairgrounds.