Paris police clamp down on Canada-style ‘freedom convoy’
PARIS/ SYDNEY, Feb 12, ( AFP) - A French “freedom convoy” of cars and vans began arriving in Paris on Saturday for a protest over coronavirus restrictions, but the police moved quickly to prevent a Canadian-style blockade of the capital by issuing hundreds of fines.
Inspired by the truckers that shut down the Canadian capital Ottawa, thousands of demonstrators from across France said they planned to form “a mass of vehicles that the security forces would find impossible to contain”.
Several hundred vehicles, mostly vans, mobile-homes and cars, converged on the main ring road around the city after spending the night camped on the outskirts of the capital.
But the police acted quickly, issuing 283 fines for “participation in an unauthorised protest” by mid-morning.
The demonstrators include anti-Covid vaccination activists, but also people angry at fast-rising energy prices, some of whom took part in the “Yellow Vest” protest movement of 2018/2019.
Just two months ahead of presidential elections and with the government desperate to avoid a repeat of the “Yellow Vest” riots that shook the capital, Macron said Friday he understood the “fatigue” linked to the Covid- 19 pandemic.
“This fatigue also leads to anger. I understand it and I respect it. But I call for the utmost calm,” he told the OuestFrance newspaper.
Nearly 7,200 officers have been deployed to prevent a blockade, with the Champs-Elysees avenue, which was the epicentre of the “Yellow Vest” protests, under particularly heavy guard.
Prime Minister Jean Castex vowed to remain steadfast. “If they block traffic or if they try to block the capital, we must be very firm about this,” he told France 2 television.
The convoys set out from Nice in the south, Lille and Vimy in the north, Strasbourg in the east and Chateaubourg in the west. They are demanding the withdrawal of the government's vaccine pass, which is required for access to many public spaces, and more help with their energy bills.
“People need to see us, and to listen to the people who just want to live a normal and free life,” said Lisa, a 62-year-old retired health worker travelling in the Chateaubourg convoy.
Paris police banned the gathering saying it posed a threat to public order and said protesters who tried to block roads would face fines or arrest.
The order prohibiting the assembly of convoys was upheld on Friday by the
People need to see us, and to listen to the people who just want to live a normal and free life,”
courts, which rejected two appeals.
“It's a betrayal. The basis of the order is not respectful of the law, of the freedom to demonstrate,” anti-vaccine and “yellow vest” activist Sophie Tissier told AFP.
The prime minister defended the clampdown. “The right to demonstrate and to have an opinion are a constitutionally guaranteed right in our republic and in our democracy. The right to block others or to prevent coming and going is not,” he said.
From Paris, some of the protesters plan to travel on to Brussels for a “European convergence” of protesters planned there for Monday.
Thousands protest vaccine mandates in Australian capital
Thousands of protesters marched through Australia's capital to the parliament building on Saturday to decry Covid-19 vaccine mandates, the latest in a string of rallies against pandemic restrictions around the world.
Demonstrators packed Canberra's streets before massing outside the parliament, some waving the red Australian ensign flag associated with “sovereign citizens” who believe national laws do not apply to them.
Protesters, many with children, rallied under bright skies brandishing banners proclaiming “Fight for Your Freedom & Rights”, “Free Aus Freedom Now”, or “No forced drugs” written above a symbol of a syringe.
Police estimated there were up to 10,000 protesters. They were “generally well behaved”, a police spokesman said.
Australia says 94 percent of people aged over 16 have had at least two Covid19 vaccinations.
Though getting the jab is voluntary, it is generally required for people entering the country and for those working in a range of professions deemed at particular risk such as caring for the elderly.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who must call a general election by mid-May,
called on the protesters to act peacefully. But the Australian leader also said he understood their concerns, and stressed that the states -- not the federal government -- were responsible for many of the vaccine requirements.
“My message to them today is Australia is a free country and they have a right to protest and I would ask them to do that in a peaceful way and a respectful way,” Morrison told reporters when asked about the rallies. “Those who are protesting today are speaking up for the things that they feel strongly about.” Morrison said he wanted to be “very clear” that the federal government had only supported mandates that relate to aged care workers, disability workers and those working in high-risk health situations.
Anti- vaccine mandate rallies have also swelled outside the New Zealand parliament in Wellington, where protesters and police faced each other under heavy rain on Saturday with no clashes.
World attention has been focused on Canadian truckers who have jammed a key bridge linking Canada and the United States, defying a judge's order to leave Friday night.