For Gilles Renevier, a vet from a village south-east of Lyon, fighting Amazon’s plans to build a vast logistics centre in his area was “common sense”, reports The Guardian.
The US firm was due to begin construction of a huge centre for packing and delivery beside Lyon airport in south-east France this year, but two local associations have lodged legal files to halt the build.
They warn there would be a damaging increase in road traffic and pollution with more than 1,000 lorries and 4,500 small vehicle movements a day, and no proper planning nor public transport to compensate for it in an area already saturated with traffic. They also argue the build would destroy 33 protected species of animal life without justification.
“We won’t back down,” Renevier said. “This project is an outdated way of doing things. We have to think about how to live better in a society with less pollution.”
There has been a rise in anti-Amazon feeling among French campaigners, bolstered by gilets jaunes demonstrations against the firm. French consumers spent more than €38bn shopping online last year, and Amazon is the market leader. But a series of yellow vest blockades outside Amazon depots has heightened a row over global tech firms’ tax advantages.
When the anti-government gilet jaunes protesters began their nationwide tax revolt in November, it was aimed at the state rather than companies, and there were protests at unemployment offices and attacks on local government buildings.