It is a protest movement against health restrictions that was born in Canada and which today has a few emulators in France. Several “freedom convoys” set off on Wednesday from Strasbourg, Bayonne or Nice to make their way to Paris. Truck drivers, motorists, retired or active, as a couple or as a family, who are protesting against the vaccination pass but also against the soaring fuel prices.
“I came just after work to defend our freedoms” – Nadia, resident of the Arcachon basin
The procession from the Basque Country stopped in Gironde overnight from Wednesday to Thursday. A hundred people were found south of Bordeaux on the Cestas motorway service area which borders the A63. Truck driver from Pau, William says he is fed up with the vaccination pass and the price of diesel, “life that increases”. “We can’t do it anymore, we have to do something that marks”.
“The mask represents a muzzle that we wanted to put on the French people” – Michel, from Mimizan
Anti-mask, Michel, a retiree from the Landes, is also anti-vaccine. “It’s not a vaccine, it’s an experimental gene treatment”. “Be careful, we are not anti-vaccine”specifies another demonstrator when a Bordeaux family chants “Macron you’re screwed, the people are in the street”.
Earning a minimum wage every month, I’m starting to get fed up – Manu, delivery driver from Capbreton
“We can no longer manage to live, to make ends meet“, says Manu. The young thirty-year-old drives in a van with his partner Julie, a home help in Capbreton. “Getting up every morning at 4 a.m. to earn not even a pittance, it’s starting to be tiring. I earn 1,286 euros. I have 50 km a day to do, I calculated, that’s 200 euros of gasoline that I can take from my salary, so I don’t even have 1,000 euros left to live on, plus 510 euros in rent, plus the bills, it’s no longer possible.”