Posted at 5:00 a.m.
(Bordeaux) Horns. Sirens. Blue-white-red flags. Rallying cries spit through the megaphone. Posters with the slogans “Antipass”, “Freedom forever” or “Fuck you”.
There is electricity in the air in the parking lot of the Pessac rest area, along the A63 motorway near Bordeaux. Dozens of cars, motorhomes and heavy goods vehicles gathered to party at dusk, before launching an assault on Paris, where a big demonstration is planned for Saturday to denounce the imposition of the vaccine passport against COVID-19.
PHOTO JEAN-CHRISTOPHE LAURENCE, THE PRESS
Yvon Castel
They do not hide it: even if the majority of them are not professional drivers, their “convoy of freedom” is based on the model of the Canadian truckers who have paralyzed Ottawa for nearly two weeks. “Oh cousins! They are the ones who set the fire! “says Yvon Castel, admiringly, behind his big Gaul mustache. “Inform the Canadians that France is with them”, adds a little further Thierry Bernardin, almost moved, brandishing an anti-Macron sign.
PHOTO JEAN-CHRISTOPHE LAURENCE, THE PRESS
Thierry Bernardin
This improbable procession, launched since Wednesday from the south of France, was organized through social networks as quickly as it was spontaneous.
They do not know each other, but are united by the same cause. There are those who rush towards the capital and there are those who came to support them, for lack of being able to make the revolution themselves. Locals offer lodging for the night, others distribute soup, bottles of water, beer or applause.
The atmosphere is intended to be good-natured, but we feel that anger could explode at any time. There seems to be a fine line between good humor and the middle finger.
Their demands? The same as in Canada, or almost.
Everyone here passionately contests health restrictions, and more specifically the vaccination passport, required everywhere in France to enter bistros, restaurants, performance halls, long-distance transport, as well as for certain professions.
For Hélène, a healthcare worker who was suspended for not being vaccinated, the French state simply overstepped the mark. “We are flouting human rights”, launches the one who prefers to keep her last name silent.
It must be said that in the freedom convoy, we do not really believe in COVID-19. For most, vaccinated or not, the health crisis is above all a pretext for population control, a fiction in the service of a dictatorship to be overthrown as a matter of urgency.
“People are fed up with the government doxa which lies about the benefits of the pseudo-vaccine, launches Michel Murat, plaid shirt and zero ball, happy owner of a fully equipped Renault van. It can’t go on like this, otherwise they will revolt. You have to say stop! We don’t want a civil war, but we want to be heard! »
Like the yellow vests
This festive and popular gathering is reminiscent of the beginning of the yellow vests crisis, when hundreds of individuals gathered on the roundabouts in October 2018. Some still claim to be part of the movement and are delighted to see it. see resurrect thanks to the health crisis.
The demands of the yellow vests have not disappeared. If the vaccine passport is the main issue of this freedom convoy, many continue to denounce the high cost of living, the purchasing power, the rise in the price of gasoline, diesel, gas and corruption among the elites .
« C’est un ras-le-bol général », résume Didier Magne, qui est venu de Bordeaux avec sa conjointe, dans l’espoir de sauter dans un camion jusqu’à Paris.
On leur signale qu’une élection présidentielle est prévue dans deux mois en France, et qu’ils auront alors tout le loisir d’exprimer leurs opinions.
Vrai qu’ils rêvent tous de dégommer Emmanuel Macron, et encore plus depuis que celui-ci a déclaré vouloir « emmerder » les antivax. Mais ils veulent se faire entendre tout de suite et profiter de l’élan créé par les camionneurs nord-américains.
« De toute façon, même si on vote, pensez-vous vraiment que les parlementaires vont nous écouter ? », argumente Michel Murat, de moins en moins festif et de plus en plus rageur.
Encore trop tôt pour prédire la suite du mouvement. Mais le scénario d’une montée en puissance peut inquiéter le gouvernement à quelques semaines de la présidentielle et des législatives. Alors qu’il semble se sortir lentement mais sûrement de la crise sanitaire, Emmanuel Macron n’a sans doute pas envie d’avoir une nouvelle révolte populaire sur les bras, lui qui attend toujours une accalmie pour annoncer officiellement sa candidature.
Une éventuelle levée du passeport vaccinal « fin mars, début avril », annoncée mercredi par le porte-parole du gouvernement Gabriel Attal, pourrait contribuer à faire baisser la tension, tandis que les indicateurs continuent de baisser en France, avec moins de 200 000 cas positifs mercredi, une première depuis le mois de janvier.
Mais pour l’heure, les convoyeurs de la colère semblent déterminés à se rendre jusqu’à Paris, en dépit de l’interdiction de manifester annoncée jeudi par la préfecture de police, qui a mis en place un « dispositif spécifique […] to prevent the blocking of roads, verbalize and challenge offenders”, who risk two years’ imprisonment in the event of obstruction of traffic
The procession must also go to Brussels on Monday, in front of the headquarters of the European Union. Like Paris, the Belgian authorities announced that the freedom convoy would not have access to the city center, for lack of official authorization.