PARIS – A total of 160,000 people protested across France yesterday, angered at the country’s Covid-19 health pass system that they say unfairly restricts the unvaccinated, said the Interior Ministry.
By early evening, authorities had logged 222 separate protest actions, including 14,500 people who turned out here.
Sixteen were arrested and three police officers slightly injured in what is the seventh consecutive weekend of Covid-19 protests.
“The vaccine isn’t the solution,” said retiree Helene Vierondeels, who attended a right-wing protest in the capital.
“We should rather be stopping the closures of hospital beds and continuing the barrier measures.”
In Bordeaux, several protesters said they are refusing to get their children vaccinated, just days before the start of the new school year.
“We aren’t laboratory rats,” said an 11-year-old boy marching with his father.
“We live in a free country, there are no figures that justify mass vaccinations,” said the child’s father, likening the increased pressure to vaccinate to rape.
Under the Covid-19 pass system, introduced progressively since mid-July, anyone wishing to enter a restaurant, theatre, cinema, long-distance train, or large shopping centre must show proof of immunisation or a negative test.
The government insists that the pass is necessary to encourage vaccination uptake and avoid a fourth national lockdown, with the unvaccinated accounting for most of the Covid-19 patients admitted to hospital.
Yesterday’s overall figure was slightly down on the 175,000 protesters who turned out last weekend.
Around 200,000 people marched on previous weekends, according to Interior Ministry figures.
Organisers, however, said the real numbers are double the estimates announced by police.
The protest movement has brought together conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers, former members of the Yellow Vest anti-government movement, as well as people concerned that the current system unfairly creates a two-tier society. – AFP, August 29, 2021
