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In different parts of the French territory there were mobilizations against the vaccination pass. The protesters also rejected President Emmanuel Macron’s statements against people who refuse to receive the drugs. The protests come at a time when France is going through a new spike in infections, more pronounced than in previous waves.
Emmanuel Macron received a massive response to his statements about the unvaccinated. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the streets to demand “respect” for the individual freedoms of citizens, after the president stated in an interview for ‘Le Monde’ that he will seek to “annoy” people who have not received the biological. Some affirmations that the president reiterated on Friday.
In the French streets, the protesters chanted that they too were going to take charge of “annoying him”, while many waved signs that read: “no to the vaccination pass.”
The protests come shortly after the National Assembly approved a bill that establishes that those over 12 years old who have not received the vaccine will not be able to enter multiple spaces such as restaurants, museums, gyms, cinemas, or certain transport public. This measure differs from the health pass because it does not accept a negative test to access these places.
Although the text must go through the approval of the Senate, it has already generated an intense debate in the country about the borders of individual freedoms.
One of the leaders of the protests in Paris, the pro-Frexit presidential candidate, Florian Philippot, assured that France is “the country of tyranny, of segregation, where millions of people are estranged.”
However, the mobilizations were mixed. A librarian told the AFP news agency that she did not follow any politician but wanted to protest against the “pass that becomes a disguised vaccination obligation.”
The rejection of the “vaccination pass” spread throughout the French territory
Not only in Paris was the discontent of the population felt in the face of the government’s measures and discourse against the unvaccinated. In Montpellier about 3,700 people took to the streets and authorities reported clashes.
To the east, in Bordeaux, according to police figures, between 500 and 1,000 people gathered. A protester who said she was not anti-vaccination told AFP that she was going to march “for the first time in her life” motivated by the president’s statements.
In Lyon, the demonstration was smaller and people of all ages and some representatives of the yellow vest movement were present.
According to the Interior Ministry, more than 100,000 people protested throughout the country. A new day that adds to the frequent protests against health measures, which have become massive, such as when 121,000 people marched against mandatory vaccination in September and the 237,000 who also did so in August of the year last.
Demonstrations amid a steep rise in cases
France is going through a new peak in Covid-19 infections. This Saturday the Ministry of Health registered 303,669 new cases. At the same time, hospitalizations are on the rise and there is fear of a saturation of the health system.
Deaths have also risen but at a slower rate than in other waves, approaching 200 deaths a day.
The country has administered more than 4.2 million doses and about 78% of the population is fully vaccinated.
However, the inoculation campaign has slowed down. And in the coming months, Macron will have to face a part of the citizenry resistant to vaccines. What remains to be seen is the effect his fierce anti-vaccine speech will have of running for re-election in April.
With Reuters, AFP and local media
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