Leaving from all over France, thousands of opponents of health restrictions took to the road on Friday in convoys, determined to reach the outskirts of Paris in the evening, despite the warnings of the authorities to prevent a blockage.
Inspired by the mobilization in Canada, the organizers denounce the vaccination pass which came into force on January 24 and claim to be “Yellow Vests”, a popular protest movement of 2018-2019 triggered by a rise in gasoline prices which had turned to revolt against President Emmanuel Macron.
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Since Wednesday, these first French “freedom convoys” have left by car, motorhome or carpool from Nice (south-east), Bayonne or even Perpignan (south-west) and continued to set off on Friday morning from towns closer to the capital.
Refuting any intention of blocking, the participants hope to converge in the evening towards Paris, spend the night there, then participate on Saturday in the various weekly processions against the vaccination pass, which they demand the withdrawal, as well as all the measures of constraint or pressure linked to vaccination”, in addition to demands on purchasing power, which have become an important theme of the campaign given inflation and the rise in fuel prices.
Some then want to try to rally Brussels for a “European convergence” scheduled for Monday. The Belgian authorities have however decided to deny them access to the capital, for lack of a request on their part.
In Paris, the police headquarters also decreed on Thursday the prohibition of this mobilization for “risks of disturbing public order” and provided for a device “to prevent the blocking of roads, verbalize and arrest offenders”.
An appeal against this ban must be examined in the afternoon by the administrative court of Paris.
“If people want to protest normally, they can do it. If they want to block traffic, we will intervene, ”warned Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Thursday evening on the LCI television channel.
In the spirit of conviviality that had marked the beginning of the movement of “yellow vests”, several convoys spent the night in halts or with individuals who had opened their homes or parking lots.
“These first departures give a lot of hope, it fills the heart and it is the objective of this movement, to set up a chain of active solidarity, from accommodation to packed lunches”, commented to the AFP, one of the initiators of the movement, under the pseudonym Rémi Monde.
“We are determined, but without aggressiveness”, “We are together, it’s magnificent!”, Comments under the horns and the French flags in the wind, Olivier, a participant, when setting off from Brest (north-west ) driving his car.
The French authorities mentioned this week the end of the vaccination pass “by the end of March” or “beginning of April”, but the spokesman of the government Gabriel Attal warned Friday against an “attempt of instrumentalization” political of the “weariness of the French” after two years of health crisis.
A new “yellow vests” type crisis would be particularly bad for power, before an official announcement of Mr. Macron’s candidacy expected by the end of the month for the presidential election in April.
Several presidential candidates have lent their support to this movement, including Marine Le Pen, Éric Zemmour (far right) and the radical left party La France insoumise (LFI).
“I could support them, yes of course, I will see how all this is put in place”, indicated Thursday evening the leader of LFI, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, on the France 2 channel.
Conversely, others like the environmental candidate Yannick Jadot have distanced themselves.
“I do not support this demonstration, on the other hand, I support the right to demonstrate, but I fully understand the state of not wanting Paris to be blocked”, he declared on BFMTV, judging the situation in Ottawa, the Canadian capital, “unacceptable from a democratic point of view”.