Coming from all over France, thousands of opponents of health restrictions traveling in convoys approached the outskirts of Paris on Friday evening, despite the warnings of the authorities, determined to prevent any blockage.
Inspired by the mobilization in Canada, the organizers denounce the vaccine passport 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 into a revolt against President Emmanuel Macron.
The first demonstrators have left since Wednesday by car, motorhome or carpool from Nice (south-east), Bayonne or even Perpignan (south-west) and other cities closer to the capital on Friday. At the end of the afternoon, some 3,600 vehicles were en route to Paris, according to the police.
Refuting any intention of blocking, the participants in a movement they call “freedom convoys” hope to converge in the evening on Paris to spend the night there, then participate on Saturday in the various weekly processions against the vaccine passport, pillar of the system of the French government against COVID-19.
They demand the withdrawal of “all measures of constraint or pressure related to vaccination”, in addition to claims on purchasing power and the price of energy, which have become an important theme of the campaign for the next French presidential election. of April.
Some then want to continue to Brussels for a “European convergence” scheduled for Monday, but the Belgian authorities have forbidden them access to the capital, for lack of demand on their part.
“Stroll” in Paris
In Paris, the police headquarters also banned this mobilization for “risks of disturbing public order” and provided for a device “to prevent the blocking of roads, verbalize and arrest offenders”.
The authorities in the capital, where the gendarmerie deployed armored vehicles in the afternoon, have created “temporary pounds which will allow us with several dozen towing vehicles to put an end to any blockage”, announced the prefect of Paris police, Didier Lallement.
President Emmanuel Macron, traveling to Brest (north-west), called for “the greatest calm”, while saying “hear and respect” the “fatigue” and “anger” of the population after two years of health crisis , in an interview with the regional daily West France.
Prime Minister Jean Castex warned that the participants would be arrested “if they block traffic or if they intend to block the capital, we must be very firm on this”.
An appeal against the ban on the demonstration was rejected in the afternoon by the Paris administrative court.
“No, we’re not necessarily going to block, we’re going for a walk,” Marie, 39, a sales assistant from Brittany (west) told AFP. “We are going for a walk in Paris, in the capital and then after if we can we will go for a walk to Brussels”, she added.
Wearing a relaxed mask
The government mentioned this week the end of the vaccine passport “end of March” or “beginning of April”, but warned Friday against an “attempt to instrumentalize” political “weariness of the French”.
The Ministry of Health also announced on Friday, given the “improvement of the health situation”, the lifting from February 28 of the obligation to wear a mask in closed places subject to the vaccine passport, it that is, establishments dedicated to leisure activities, restaurants, drinking establishments, etc., but not transport.
On Friday, instructions for the occupation of roundabouts across the country also spread on Saturday.
“I appeal to join all the big cities to occupy them, multiply the assembly points”, declared in a video one of the initiators of the movement, under the pseudonym of Rémi Monde.
A new crisis of the type “yellow vests” would be particularly bad for the power, before an official announcement of candidacy for the presidential election of Mr. Macron expected by the end of the month.
Several candidates for the election have expressed their sympathy for this movement, including Marine Le Pen, Eric Zemmour (extreme right) or the radical left party La France insoumise (LFI) of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Conversely, others have distanced themselves, such as Les Républicains (LR, right) or the environmental candidate, Yannick Jadot, who said he understood “perfectly the State of not wanting Paris to be blocked”, judging the situation at Canada “democratically unacceptable”.