DECRYPTION – They don’t vaguely want to save the planet. These young activists who multiply the illegal actions have a single objective, and it is precise: the energy renovation of the building.
Until June 3, no one had heard of them. Then the disconcerting image of Alizée, standing on her knees, stoic, in front of the tennis net to which she had just attached herself by the neck on one of the courts of Roland-Garros, brought to this enigmatic collective the beginning of notoriety expected. That said, the movementLast renovationis not very old: the first action he claims on his website dates back to April 1, when a dozen of his activists blocked the Paris ring road for a few minutes. A Twitter account had been created a few days earlier, in March. How many are they ? At least four, who testify openly. A few dozen, which since the spring have been blocking road traffic here and there. Approximately 1,500 to have signed the “1028-day call for action”. Or barely twice as interested in the news of the movement on social networks…
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This Saturday, June 11, they managed to make people talk about them again, this time by blocking traffic for an hour and a half on the Neuilly bridge, where the N13 connects Paris to La Défense. A handful of activists sat on the road and stuck their hands in glue on the bitumen, generating major traffic jams and, above all, arousing the ire of motorists. One of them, introducing himself as a doctor and saying he had to go urgently to a seriously ill patient, tried to ask the young outlaws to give way, nothing happened. fact: it took the intervention of the police and firefighters equipped with solvent to clear the road. The demonstrators also received the support of photographer and filmmaker Yann Arthus-Bertrand, committed to the climate cause, who came to film the action for an upcoming film. “I find these young people very brave. It’s not my way, but we need it, these people they fight for the Earth“, he declared on the spot to the press. Eight activists were arrested and placed in police custody, according to the collective. Several of them would be repeat offenders who already have legal proceedings against them.
But then, what do they want? Far from actions with vague demands, marches for the climate, carnival happenings of Extinction Rebellion or others, these have only one demand, but it is precise: “that the government immediately undertake to ensure the overall and efficient renovation of the French housing stock by 2040 and to develop a simple and progressive financing system covering all the work for the most modest owners», fills in the heading «our requestfrom their website. The idea is to concentrate the efforts of a few activists on a precise demand, and very widely accepted by public opinion, to prevent the struggle from becoming dispersed. “We have a plan“, they claim in the call published a few days ago, in which these militants make a solemn promise: “we promise to disobey».
A hundred blockages planned by July
In reality, the collective is only an initiative launched within the Extinction Rébellion collective, and which seems to have become independent from the larger structure initially created. The Telegram channel of “Last renovation” recycles an old channel which was used, a year ago, to prepare a mobilization of the same order on behalf of Extinction Rebellion. This new collectiverecoveron its behalf activists already trained in actions of this type, and offers to participate in new online training meetings so that other goodwill can join them.
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What’s next? “We are aiming for 20 blockages and 100 participants during the second wave in June/July, enough to obtain national media coverage and establish fertile ground for mobilization for a third wave, larger and longer, in September/October. The objective for this third wave will be to disrupt daily and mobilize more than 500 people over a longer period, and to aim for between 1000 and 2000 arrests», Explains a document which presents the upcoming campaign.
For the rest, the collective has at least the merit of lucidity: “The purpose of our actions is not to be liked, we can live with a very weak public opinion for our campaign».
