For the sixth week in a row, thousands of French people took to the streets this Saturday (21) to protest health passports, the control mechanism implemented by the Macron government to restrict access to closed environments that are fully immunized against Covid . Present a negative test for -19 or the disease.
The demonstrations were repeated in peaceful tones from the north to the south of the country, bringing people of different political orientations around an outcry against the control of the circulation and what they called a “compulsory commentary”.
“Get the vaccine if you want, but we are against passports to enter the hospital or go shopping, we demand the repeal of the law”, said Jérme Rodrigues, one of the symbolic figures of the “yellow vest” movement. said. , a city in the region of the French Pyrenees, in front of 2,700 demonstrators.
To the north, in Lille, the protest attracted 3,200 people, by official count, and was led by a banner that read “We will take Macron with his passport and his stupid reforms” (“Dagegon Macron Avec son pas et ses” réformes la con”, in French).
against health passport
Protesters are trying to pressure Emmanuel Macron’s government, which is currently restricting access to restaurants, cinemas, bars and even long-distance trains for those who are fully immunized or who have tested negative for the disease.. The test, which is done free today, will be charged in the coming months for those who do not have a medical request.
Taking part in the protests in Paris, Monique Bourise, 75, said “without vaccination” she was not against the vaccine, “I am waiting for the French.” The country has so far adopted vaccines from AstraGenec, Pfizer and Moderna. .
According to police, the largest demonstrations took place in Marseille, with 9,500 people, and in Toulon (6,000). There were 4,100 protesters in Strasbourg, 3,400 in Bordeaux and Toulouse, 3,000 in Bayonne, 2,500 in Nice, 2,300 in Nantes and 2,000 in Caen.
In Paris, protesters were divided into four protests, two of them started by groups in “yellow vests” and one by the far-right “Patriots” party leader Florian Philipot. In March led by Philippe, the name of physician Didier Raoult, a staunch advocate of the use of hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19, was widely appreciated.
In support of the doctor, who continues to support the use of hydroxychloroquine, despite several studies showing its ineffectiveness against Covid, several protesters in Paris and Marseilles held up “Don’t Touch Raoult” banners.
This week, the director of the Hospitals de Marseilles said Raoult, who works at the institute at the University Hospital of Marseille, should not place his mandate on the head of the institution. At the age of 69, the researcher will be forced to retire from his university work.
In Bordeaux in southwestern France, protesters chanted “don’t touch our children”. Among the protesters, parents and grandparents are concerned about the expansion of vaccinations to children under the age of 12 – which the government has yet to anticipate.
From June onwards, adolescents aged 12 to 17 can be immunized against COVID-19. So far 55% of people in this group have taken at least one dose of the vaccine.
In the general population of France, 70% have already taken at least one dose of a vaccination agent, and 55% are fully vaccinated.
