Lannion, a small town lost at the end of Brittany, Canadian flags flew this weekend on the Quai d’Aiguillon, in the city center. The organizers of the demonstration against the vaccine passport have invited the 180 participants to join the convoy which will leave Thursday for Paris and which will pass through Morlaix and Guingamp. Nobody knows how many volunteers will be on the trip, but such calls have been ringing out for a few days from all over France.
As vivid images of truckers blocking Ottawa took over screens, in Perpignan, Lyon, Chalon-sur-Saône, La Rochelle and many other cities, invitations to follow suit multiplied. For a week, the mobilization has been organized. The stated objective is to block Paris this weekend and then to meet on February 14 in Brussels, where convoys from elsewhere in Europe should converge.
Difficult to assess the real extent of a movement whose organization remains more than nebulous. For the past ten days, a Facebook group called “The Freedom Convoy” has claimed 250,000 members. Far from expressing the only dissatisfaction of truckers, this movement more broadly echoes the calls of opponents of measures intended to combat the COVID-19 epidemic. We can read there that “citizens intend to recover their freedom, their fundamental rights, unconditional access to health care, education and culture and respect for the essential values of our Constitution”.
Many route maps are exchanged on social networks, and convoys have already been announced from Nice, Perpignan, Bayonne, Brest, Strasbourg, Lille and Cherbourg. This movement wants to be “peaceful and joyful”, specified Pascal Poyen, of the Collective anti-passes and vaccine freedom of Chalon-sur-Saône. In Perpignan, the participants met on Wednesday in front of the Brico Dépôt located in the north of the city to take the direction of Paris. The convoys coming from the south-west of France should end up in Poitiers before reaching Tours, where many volunteers should be waiting for them to supply them.
A different context
It would not be the first time that heavyweights have blocked Paris or Brussels. With the exception that, for the moment, no truckers’ union has expressed its support for a movement whose certain organizers claim to want to “get out of this global tyranny”. Many trade unionists are indeed skeptical. According to the political secretary of the Belgian Union of Employees, Technicians and Managers (SETCa), Julien Dohet, quoted by the Brussels daily DHthese demonstrators are trying “to stick to a reality that is different”.
In Europe, truckers have always been exempt from border health checks. Another difference is that European drivers are generally employees, who cannot therefore use their truck without the authorization of their employer. Moreover, a certain Rémi Monde who improvised on Facebook spokesperson for the movement called not to count on the truckers. The European context is also different from that of Canada insofar as several countries, such as the United Kingdom, Denmark and Spain, have already lifted practically all restrictions against COVID-19. Which will not be long elsewhere as well.
This does not prevent many demonstrators from wanting to travel to Paris and Brussels by motorhome, car or even motorbike. A Facebook group called “Freedom Bikers” claims 11,000 members. The messages that are exchanged on the Net, and which evoke in particular the general rise in prices, are reminiscent of the movement of yellow vests born in 2018 and which continues to demonstrate in several cities. In some, like Troyes, antipass and yellow vests demonstrated arm in arm.
In the middle of the presidential campaign, the main French political personalities stayed away from this initiative. Only more marginal figures, such as the leader of the Patriotes, Florian Philippot (formerly an adviser to Marine Le Pen) and the president of Via, the former Christian Democratic Party, Jean-Frédéric Poisson (now a supporter of Éric Zemmour) , expressed their support.
Elsewhere in Europe, the Facebook group “European Freedom Convoy” claims 47,000 members. If some of them are to be believed, convoys could leave from Austria, Hungary, Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy and Croatia. On social networks, offers of accommodation and donations are multiplying. Thus in Toulouse, a certain Thierry Silve-Chartier suggests “bringing 40 baguettes for lunch, 20 croissants and 20 chocolatines for teatime”.