From the word of early demonstrators, the revival is “light” in the two events organized against the vaccine pass this Saturday January 8 in Lyon. “They are all new, it’s a good sign”, says a participant. “Because Macron, he puts us at bay. It’s not dumber than that. You know the ” Nuremberg code ”? Do you know about human rights? If you don’t want to be vaccinated, we don’t get vaccinated. We do what we want. And me, I’m not afraid “, he insists.
In the procession of Place Bellecour, where 2,000 demonstrators gathered, few wear masks. Some wave French flags, others slogans for “piss off” in turn Emmanuel Macron. Her comments about the unvaccinated, in an interview with Le Parisien on January 4, shocked Xenia: “A President of the Republic who says ” fuck you ”, just the word is violent. A President of the Republic does not have to say this kind of thing, especially to his citizens”.
She and her friend Maëlle work in the theater industry. Unvaccinated, they describe the situation as increasingly difficult: “I did a theater internship, where I was only with vaccinated people”, says Maëlle. “Every morning I had to go get tested, and I was the only one in 20 to do it. It sickened me. I really felt outright discrimination at that time.”, she explains.
With the vaccination pass, the tests will no longer be accepted. Selon Naïla, another demonstrator, this measure is much more serious than a restriction of freedom. “For me, it’s really a shame pass”, she says. “It creates segregation, apartheid, by dividing the vaccinated people and the unvaccinated people, by creating even more discord between us. We have to keep our freedoms.”, still believes Naïla.
“France must once again become ” Liberty, equality and fraternity ””
Naïla, protesterto franceinfo
And the context favors the mobilization, notes Thibault Pillet, president of the collective “Lyon for the freedom”, organizer of the gathering. “That people understand: whether we are 2000 or 50, deep down, there are millions of us thinking the same. And even if physically, we are not in the street, in our hearts and in our minds, we fighting the same thing: this health pass and compulsory vaccination “, he concludes.
Opponents of the vaccination pass in Lyon have already planned a new mobilization next Saturday, January 15.