The movement has even redoubled in scope.
After several weeks of mobilization, opponents of the health pass once again found themselves in the street this Saturday afternoon, in several cities in France.
The day before the rallies, the authorities had already announced that they expected to see at least 150,000 people pounding the pavement.
This figure was finally surpassed: 204,000 people were in the streets this Saturday.
As a reminder, the past week had already been marked by a mobilization deemed strong, with 161,000 people according to official figures.
A large crowd at the heart of the summer holidays.
To read also: Health pass: and suddenly in Paris, the "yellow vests" returned to the Champs-Élysées
In the south-east of France, 38,000 demonstrators were thus counted by the authorities, in motley processions of "yellow vests", anti-vaccines or people claiming to be simply attached to "
the freedom of everyone.
"In Lille, more than 2000 people gathered in the same way, with the rallying cries of"
Macron resignation
"and"
liberty, liberty
".
In Strasbourg, 3,200 people similarly gathered around MP Martine Wonner, recently excluded from her group in the assembly because of her position on vaccines.
In Bordeaux, 5,500 people were also mobilized.
They were around 1200 in Lyon.
In Nice, the mobilization - 6,500 people according to the police - was also a little more provided than the previous week when 6,000 protesters had marched.
The number of Parisian demonstrators, for its part, rose to 14,250, against 11,000 the previous week.
In Reunion, which is facing a rapid increase in Covid-19 cases and which is subject to partial containment as of this weekend, a rally also took place in the streets of Saint-Denis.
A thousand people gathered.
Despite partial confinement, a rally took place in Saint-Denis de La Réunion.
Richard BOUHET / AFP
It must be said that four processions competed in the capital.
The main one circulated from Villiers to the Place de la Bastille.
Another rally, around the president of the party Les Patriotes Florian Philippot, took place in Montparnasse at the Ministry of Health.
Finally, two different demonstrations were declared by groups of "yellow vests", one around the figure of Jérôme Rodriguez, and the other declared by the activist Sébastien Philippart.
"
Pass of shame
"
While the anti-covid law, providing for a battery of measures against the spread of the virus, was voted last Sunday by Parliament, it is the health pass that crystallizes all the oppositions. The “
shame pass
”, as the demonstrators call it, is an “
attack on freedom
”, Judge Sylviane, on the Place du Palais Royal, the starting point of one of the gatherings. "
I do not want to be scanned at all costs
", adds the one who refuses, as much as she can, the vaccination. “
AstraZeneca, I don't trust him. Pfizer is the same: it's gene therapy. I am not a guinea pig.
"
Words that can also be found in the mouths of Margaret and Alexandra, Parisian mother and daughter, who joined the procession led by Florian Philippot.
Both affirm in chorus that they prefer to "
boycott establishments which will impose the health pass
": restaurants, bars, airports, trains will join this list on which we already find places of culture and leisure (cinemas, parks of 'attractions...).
“
We did without it for a year,”
says Alexandra.
It doesn't cost us anything to continue.
"
Chauffourées in some cities
The processions, which were conducted for the most part in peace, were punctuated with violence in places.
In the rally in the direction of Bastille in Paris, numerous firecrackers and tear gas bombs were thrown at Place de la République and Boulevard Beaumarchais. A scene that was repeated at Place de la Bastille. Some sanitary blockers have been increasingly violent, in particular throwing glass bottles at the police. Several hundred gendarmes lined up and finally succeeded in driving the last recalcitrant towards the center of the square, until they found themselves surrounded on the steps of the Opera.
In Montpellier, the screening tent of a pharmacy was also destroyed by demonstrators.
Journalists, booed several times in Florian Philippot's procession, were also taken to task.
In this procession, AFP reporters were the target of spitting and insults ("
AFP Enculés
", in particular).
The previous week, journalists from BFMTV had already been threatened physically by demonstrators.
Read also: These presidential candidates who want to take advantage of the anti-health pass movement
Decision of the Constitutional Council expected
This day of strong mobilization was the last before the decision of the Constitutional Council on the anti-covid bill, which is due on August 5.
This will be decisive because it will make it possible to validate - or not - the expansion of the health pass which arouses the wrath of the demonstrators.
Florian Philippot, president of the Patriots, does not exclude based on this decision to continue the protest movement in the street next Saturday.
"
We are also thinking of diversifying the means of protest with the boycott of places that impose the pass,
" he said in Figaro.
To read also: The macronie relativizes the new mobilization of the sanitary anti-pass
The health pass, if it receives the approval of the Constitutional Council, will enter into force in an extended manner from August 9, according to government announcements. A decision which takes place in a context of epidemic recovery in overseas territories but also in metropolitan France, and more particularly in the coastal and tourist departments.
