Italian PM undeterred by mass protest over Lyon-Turin rail link

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2005

ROME (AFP) — Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi stuck to his guns over the need to build a high-speed rail link between Turin in Italy and Lyon in France, despite escalating protests.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators protesting against the railway occupied the site of the planned Alpine tunnel in Italy's northwestern Susa Valley.

Several people were injured in scuffles with police who fired tear gas, though security forces did not act to stop protesters entering the site at Venaus, some 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Turin.

About the same time as the protest was under way, Berlusconi voiced his determination at a press conference in the capital, Rome, to see the multi-billion-euro project come to fruition.

"The high-speed rail link is a job...