French vaccine pass: Violence erupts as 54,000 people attend protests

Now that the French Government have voted to change the parameters of the Passe Sanitaire (health pass) and are in the process of deactivating thousands of certificates if the owners have not received their booster dose, the critics of the move are taking to the streets. On Saturday 15 January, 54,000 demonstrators hit the pavement to make their disapproval of the French vaccine pass known.
Following the comments of French president Emmanuel Macron, in which he stated he wanted to ‘piss off’ the country’s unvaccinated citizens, last weeks protests saw 105,200 people join in to vent their frustrations. The aim of this week was to keep the momentum and match or improve upon that number, but it was not achieved.
Still, more than 7,000 people marched through Paris alone, with 1,300 in Lyon, 1,140 in Nantes, 1,000 in Bordeaux, 950 in Rennes, 750 in Marseille, 650 in Clermont-Ferrand, according to the police or the regional councils. In Paris, many French flags and regional flags – Corsican, Breton – floated above the crowd of demonstrators who marched against the pass and health restrictions on Saturday.
Most of the banners displayed hostility both to the French vaccine pass and to the vaccines themselves: “It’s not a virus they want to control, it’s you” in Paris, or “Democracy in danger”, “Toxic vaccine ” in Rennes… Because on the same day, thousands of health passes were deactivated for lack of a vaccine reminder against Covid-19. This happened as the French Senate ratified the changeover from their prior health pass into a stricter version that requires booster doses within a set timeframe for the documentation to remain valid. Under the passed legislation, French residents will be required to prove their vaccination status to access restaurants and bars, cultural venues, or interregional public transport. A negative Covid-19 test will no longer be sufficient, except for access to health facilities and services.
In Paris, protesters against the French vaccine pass turned violent, attacking a press member of the AFP. A hooded individual with a megaphone said: “It’s AFP, screw them, these sons of bitches”, relates the attacked journalist. At this call, at least fifty people went to the videographer to do battle with her. Protection agents intervened, allowing the two videographers to flee.
The security agents were then beaten, in particular with truncheons, while they were protecting the JRI, overtaken by about twenty demonstrators. Guards and reporters report receiving death threats before one of the security guards was hit in the head with a bottle, splitting his scalp open, as reported by Le Parisien.

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