They were a little more than 500, Saturday September 11, in front of the gates of the castle of Grignon, in Yvelines, to oppose the sale by the State of the domain which hosts AgroParisTech. A new demonstration, after the first initiatives in 2016 against the arrival of Paris-Saint-Germain, the football club having considered making it its new center, then other mobilizations including, in the spring, the blockade of the campus by students of 1D year residing there.
A magnificent site, made of wood, farmland, the 17th century castlee century and many adjoining buildings. An element of historical, agrological and educational heritage that the demonstrators do not want to see dismembered by the Altarea real estate project, which, between four projects submitted, was retained.
At the entrance to the site, at the end of avenue Lucien Brétignières – agricultural engineer who was director, at the end of the 19th centurye century and early twentiethe century, of what was then called the Imperial School of Agriculture of Grignon -, inhabitants, students and alumni of the school, trade unionists, associative activists, those committed against the artificialization of soils on the Triangle of Gonesse or on the plateau de Saclay (where AgroParisTech is located), and many elected officials gathered to express their anger at the scenario chosen.
On August 11, the company Altarea announced that it had been “Nominated by the state winner of the call for projects launched for the future of the Grignon site”. A blow for those who hoped to see another project triumph, “Grignon 2026”, combining international campus, incubator, university residences, conference center, around the agricultural transition, food, innovation …, carried by the Grignon 2000 association, which brings together former students and the community of communes Cœur d’Yvelines (31 communes).
For a “real regional project”
Acclaimed, the mayor of Thiverval-Grignon (1,100 inhabitants), Nadine Gohard, expressed the wish that “The sale does not take place and that the State puts things back flat, that we carry a real project of territory”. The promise to sell must be signed at the end of September.
For Sophie Primas, senator (Les Républicains) from Yvelines, who came to deliver a message of support from the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, “The state behaved in an unacceptable way vis-à-vis elected officials and citizens, doing everything on the sly, in the heart of summer”. “We are on a particular site, we were not against the transfer of AgroParisTech, nor against the fact that there is a little privatization because it is necessary to ensure the financial support of the project. But this cannot be done without consultation with local elected officials, farmers, associations and students and the educational community ”, adds the senator.
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