MACRON URGES CALM AS FRENCH CONVOYS APPROACH PARIS DESPITE POLICE BAN

Sat 12 February 2022:

Despite a police ban, protesters unhappy with pandemic restrictions traveled toward Paris in separate convoys of camper vans, vehicles, and trucks on Friday in an attempt to blockade the French city.

Truckers who have blockaded Canada’s capital and barred border crossings fueled the protests, which were organized online. However, the French action has no obvious leader or aim, and it comes after months of protests against the French government’s vaccine and anti-virus policies.

Paris region authorities deployed more than 7,000 police officers to tollbooths and other key sites to try to prevent a blockade. They threatened heavy fines and other punishments for those who defy the protest ban, which authorities said was necessary to prevent “risk to public order.”

“We have always safeguarded the right to protest … but we need harmony and we need a lot of collective goodwill,” President Emmanuel Macron told newspaper Ouest France, while urging calm.

His prime minister, Jean Castex, was more blunt. Citizens had the right to protest but not gridlock the capital, he said.

Some far-right and other figures in France appeared to be trying to revitalise their own protest movements, which represent a small minority of French citizens, by capitalising on the global attention to the Canadian protesters.

For several months, France has seen weekly rallies against vaccine mandates and virus-related restrictions, led by far-right parties. Protest attendance has dwindled in recent months. The vast majority of French individuals have received COVID-19 vaccination.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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