Socialists face dogfight with Greens over France's 'Great West' airport
A long-simmering protest movement against a project to build a new airport close to the town of Nantes, in western France, has over recent weeks grown into a major political battle that now threatens a rupture in the already strained relations between the ruling Socialist Party and its Green party allies, the EELV. Thousands of demonstrators – 13,000 according to the police, 40,000 according to the protestors – turned out at the weekend (pictured), supported by the EELV, to re-occupy the zone designated for the construction of Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport in a rural area close to Nantes, and which the largely socialist-led local authorities argue is a key element in the future development of the economy in north-west France. Jade Lindgaard reports.
AA long-simmering protest movement against a project to build a new airport close to the town of Nantes, in western France, has over recent weeks grown into a major political battle that now threatens a rupture in the already strained relations between the ruling Socialist Party and its Green party allies, the EELV.
