(Paris) They criticize vaccination, “dictatorship” or health passport: tens of thousands of people demonstrated on Saturday afternoon across France, from Marseille to Lille and from Montpellier to Paris, finding AFP offices.
“Freedom”, “Macron’s Dictator” .. From north to south the slogans are the same.
“We have doubts about vaccines against COVID-19, it’s not that we think the Earth is flat but that we don’t know the long-term effects of these hastily-assembled vaccines that Macron wants to impose on us,” sums up Rita, a 39-year-old nurse, who crossed in a procession in Montpellier. Where, according to the county, 5,500 people demonstrated.
And in the old port of Marseille, they numbered about 4,250 people according to the police headquarters, referring to the “sheep” that had been vaccinated, “bad information” that was spread on television.
In Nice, about 1,600 protesters, yellow jackets, and opponents of the health passport, compulsory vaccination or vaccination in general, marched for several hours through the city centre.
In the western half, mobilization appeared to be slightly lower. In Bordeaux, the prefecture, which issued a ban on demonstrations in the city center, he counted 1,200; The demonstrators obstructed the movement of trams and cars in certain places.
PHOTO BERTRAD GUAY, AFP
In Toulouse, the prefecture counted 2,500 demonstrators, as in Metz, including a few yellow jackets and white coats on the shoulders.
“No to the Nazi Passage,” “Pandemic Liar, Real Dictatorship,” “Pasteur Country, No Passerby,” or “I am not a QR code,” one can read on the procession banners.
In Strasbourg, the demonstration gathered 2,800 people (province), with a few people wearing a yellow star, an AFP journalist noted. In Nancy, they were 1,200 at the height of mobilization.
“Polymerase chain reaction tests may be sufficient”
AFP journalists noted that several thousand people split in the capital in at least three rallies.
The first procession departed from the royal palace (1he is arr.) before crossing the Seine with cries of “freedom”, “no to health dictatorship” or “Macron’s resignation”.
At the head of the procession, as French flags flew, were former FN second-in-command Florian Philippot, former LREM deputy covidosceptic Martine Wonner, singer Frances Lalanne or former “yellow jackets” muse Jacqueline Moreau.
Some posts were also seen diverting the yellow star’s direction with mention of the “health lane”.
Before the demonstration, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, president of the Depot La France, held a press conference in front of the Constitutional Council, in which he denounced an “unprecedented abuse of power” and a “healthy coup”, after Emmanuel Macron’s statements. With the health passport in everyday life, it is, according to him, “the beginning of a cog towards dictatorship.”
Meanwhile, about 1,500 people demonstrated in the streets south of the capital, in a mixed procession, preceded by a security cordon.
The procession left around 2:30 PM from the 14th arrondissement, and headed towards the Jussieu (V .) districte arr.), accompanied by banners such as “French Democratic Republic Wanted, Disappeared July 12, 2021,” “No to Sanitary Corridor, Stop to Dictatorship,” and “Liberty” slogans, “Macron’s Dictator.”
We are here for the demands of the yellow vests and the restriction of liberties. There is no other law to kill freedom that makes us take to the streets. “Yellow Vest” Jerome Rodriguez declared that we were always on the street.
“We are not at all anti-vaccine. We just want everyone to be free to get vaccinated or not. The PCR tests might be enough and then they should be left free,” said Aurélie and Tiphaine, both in their 30s, who both work in a shopping center in Paris region.
Finally, a few dozen people participated in another unauthorized gathering in Republic Square.
Demonstrations take place in many other cities in France, such as Quimper (400 people), Perpignan (1200), Clermond-Ferrand (1700) or Valence (2300).
In Dijon, police used tear gas and tram traffic was briefly cut off by protesters chanting “Freedom! Freedom!”.
Other demonstrations took place on Saturday afternoon in Lyon, Saint-Etienne, Rouen or Auxerre.
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