On Monday, August 30, 2021, around 6 p.m., a pro-vaccine citizen demonstration brought together nearly 150 people in Lyon. It’s a first !
While the anti-health pass demonstrations have continued to punctuate the daily life of the French for a few weeks, it is this time a pro-vaccine rally held in Lyon, on Place Antonin-Poncet, Monday August 30, 2021. One of the organizers of the event, the former journalist Jacques Boucaud, declared on Saturday August 28 to Franceinfo : ” There, these are citizens who meet to say enough is enough, we also exist “.
In the end, this event will have gathered nearly 150 people, a number that may seem derisory in the face of the more than 2,000 who marched in the streets of Lyon on the occasion of the 7th Saturday of demonstration against the health pass and even more on the scale of the 160,000 people in total to have mobilized that day in France. However, what many consider to be the first pro-vax gathering will have been able to mark the spirits.
The refusal of violence
Assessment of the event: the event took place under the sign of measure. From the start, the credo was: “Citizen fraternity, all vaccinated for a shared freedom “. The appointment was set for 6 p.m. and the rally finally dispersed calmly around 6:45 p.m., without scandal despite the presence of a handful of curious people.
“To be vaccinated = freedom “, this is the kind of message that it was then possible to read on the signs held up. The objective: to counterbalance the speeches of anti-sanitary and / or anti-vaccine demonstrators and make the majority vaccinated more visible. As a reminder: for the time being, nearly 72% of French people have received at least one dose of vaccine and more than 65% all the required doses.