Despite the heat wave, anti health passers still mobilized in the heart of summer for the 5ᵉ consecutive Saturday. The president of the Republic is in a stalemate, on the eve of the start of the school year and eight months before the presidential election.
Coluche (more precisely his giant photo) is at the head of the Yellow Vests procession, in Paris. A little further, the photo of the Abbé Pierre. That is to say if the atmosphere is good-natured. A compact crowd marches from the Porte Dorée to Clichy chanting the same slogans, “Freedom!”, “The Pass will not pass”, “Let’s free France”, “Macron resign”.
Another procession, less crowded, linked the Place de la Bourse to the Palais Royal. Finally, at the call of Florian Philippot, leader of the Patriots, more than 10,000 demonstrators gathered at Place de Catalogne (Montparnasse district). They marched behind numerous tricolor flags, some of which were emblazoned with the Cross of Lorraine. They sang the Marseillaise at the top of their voices. In the crowd, nurses in white coats, firemen, ordinary men and women, clergymen (unheard of!), families who had come for a walk…
No black blocks
We walk under the sun. As on the previous Saturdays, the police forces are surrounding the different processions. “There is no overflow, everything is going well” confides a gendarme behind his shield.
It’s true, the demonstrations against the health pass have been going on calmly since July 17, 2021. No black blocks. No fighting. No dumpster fires. We only shout against the stupid policy of the government, against Macron and his unacceptable authoritarianism to impose vaccination on everyone, young and old. We question the lies of the health authorities who swear, hand on heart, that the vaccines against Covid are harmless while the scientific community issues each day more doubts on their harmlessness. Shouting may not help much, but at least it’s a way to let off steam. That’s why the rallies swell from Saturday to Saturday.
We are not against vaccines, but against “this” vaccine,” explains a demonstrator with a blue-white-red face. We are against the health pass that is imposed to go and drink a coffee on a terrace. Against the scheduled vaccination of children. Against the third dose announced for September. Tired of this dictatorship. We are determined, we will continue.
The weekend of August 15
The determination is the same from North to South. Everywhere, demonstrations were more or less dense. There were 10,000 demonstrators in Strasbourg on August 14, but a little less in Nancy (2,600 compared to more than 3,000 the week before), about 3,000 in Metz, 4,000 in Lille. But the demonstrators were much more numerous than last week in Toulon, Marseille, Nice, Montpellier, Toulouse, Foix, Pau…. Probably because many French people demonstrated on their vacations, in the South of France.
The obvious success of this fifth week of mobilization, in the middle of the August 15 weekend, is probably unique in the recent history of the country. It augurs a very hot start to the new school year in September, when the executive will introduce the health pass for schoolchildren.
With eight months to go before the presidential election, the serious errors of communication and the repeated political mistakes in the management of the health crisis have put the President in a dead end. Worse: Macron is in the syringe!
