[en] What Is The ZAD?

The Zone A Défendre is a zone in north-west France near Nantes in the Bretagne which has been occupied since 2009 by over hundred people creating their utopia and at the same time fighting against the government which is planning to build an airport there – since 1972. All this happens in close connection with (or even melting in to) the local community.

After announcing the plans of the project in 1972 first resistance arose. The inhabitants didn’t want to leave their homes. The project would swallow millions of tax money and there was already an airport for Nantes whose capacities where not exceeded by far. Of course there were ecological reasons as well; how much nature must be destroyed in order to make an airport which in the end means more blowing out of fossil fuel. The project was put aside for years.

But when the socialist mayor Ayrault came into power, he made the project his own matter and occupations in relatively huge amounts took place in 2009. With the election of the socialist Hollande for President in 2012 Ayrault became prime minister of France and the fight against the Airport Notre Dame des Landes became a delicate national matter.

Since October 2012 there has been waves of evictions which brought up a huge resistance and attention in french public. There have been re-occupations and the number of people staying on the ZAD – living, helping, building and fighting – rapidly increased.

Right now there are several places on the ZAD threatened by eviction and the atmosphere ranges between positive free daily-life with a lot of constructions and discussions and on the other hand frequent presence of the state forces including tension at the barricades that had been built to protect the threatened places.

For more summarized information see also:

https://zad.nadir.org/spip.php?article420