On 3 June 2003 Lassalle stood up in the National Assembly during questions to Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy and sang the Occitan anthem Se Canto in protest at an announcement by Sarkozy concerning the housing of 23 gendarmes tasked with guarding the Somport tunnel, which links France with Spain through the Pyrenees.
Somport |
It was the meeting point of 4 European ways to Santiago de Compostela, 3 of them joining together there, namely Paris - Tours - Poitiers - Dax, from Center - Europe linking to Limoges, from Genoa and Lyon through Moissac, the fourth one the Toulouse way, linking Central Italy with the Languedoc region, the Toulouse region and linking though the Béarn region, via Lescar-Oloron to Somport, Spain, and the Spanish Pyrénées.