Instructions of “firmness” have been passed. Thousands of opponents of the vaccination pass and for purchasing power, gathered with their car, van, motorhome in the “convoys of freedom“won Paris and its ring road on Saturday February 12 for a first road rally, despite the ban by the police headquarters.
They are prohibited from demonstrating in the capital with their vehicles. The police carry out checks from where these traffic jams at the entrances to Paris.
>> LIVE. “Freedom convoy”: demonstrators at the gates of Paris, more than 7,000 police and gendarmes deployed
The prefect of police, Didier Lallemant, specified that 7,200 police officers and gendarmes were deployed until Monday in the capital and had received instructions of “firmness”. The prefecture has planned temporary pounds and several dozen towing vehicles to clear any roadblocks. Gendarmerie armored vehicles are also positioned in Paris, a first since the demonstrations of the yellow vests at the end of 2018. According to their messages consulted by AFP, they want to become “a mass of vehicles impossible to contain by the police unless the latter themselves block the main axes of the capital“.
At the end of the morning, 283 vehicles participating in the self-proclaimed “freedom convoys” were fined in total in Paris on Saturday morning, the Paris police headquarters announced on Twitter, while several convoys are being checked.
#Expression | The device of the @prefpolice resulted in 283 verbalizations at 11:20 a.m. pic.twitter.com/iTq9DaK4Hg
— Prefecture of Police (@prefpolice) February 12, 2022
Prime Minister Jean Castex has promised to be inflexible in the face of the movement. “If they block traffic or if they try to block the capital, you have to be very firm“, he insisted on France 2.
In a statement, thehe Paris police headquarters recalls that the organizers of a demonstration banned by the authorities can be punished by six months in prison and a fine of 7,500 euros. The participants themselves are likely to be fined a fourth class fine, or 135 euros.
#Expression | Device deployed in the capital from Friday 11.02.22 in order to enforce the ban on demonstrations for people enrolling in the “freedom convoys”.
Read our press release pic.twitter.com/NejpotDtV4— Prefecture of Police (@prefpolice) February 10, 2022
The prefecture also specifies that under article L.412.I of the highway code, if they block traffic, the sanction is heavy.
“Obstructing or obstructing a road open to traffic is punishable:
– two years imprisonment,
– a fine of 4,500 euros,
– immobilization and impoundment of the vehicle used to commit the offense of obstruction,
– the reduction by half of the maximum number of points on the driving licence,
– a suspension of the driving license for a maximum period of three years.”, thus details the Paris police headquarters.
In addition, five people were arrested this Saturday at Place Denfert-Rochereau in Paris in possession of slingshots and protective equipment (masks and gas masks), announced the Paris police headquarters on Twitter. A little earlier, two people had been arrested in this same Parisian square. The police then found in their possession cans of gasoline, hammers and knives.
Emmanuel Macron asks, finally, the demonstrators “in the greatest calm”. In a newspaper interview West Francethe Head of State said “hear and respect” dissatisfaction: “We are all collectively tired of what we have been going through for two years, observes the president. This fatigue is expressed in several ways: by disarray in some, depression in others. We see a very strong mental suffering, among our young and old. And sometimes that fatigue also translates into anger.”