Fragments of FranceIn this small town of Ariège where many neo-rural dwellers live in search of a life close to nature, resistance to the vaccine and to the health pass combine with an ambient conspiracy and the search for “alternative information. “.
Behind the swarming of the stalls, the purring of suspicion infuses. Every Saturday, from mouth to mouth, we spread the word. Dominique Delort, well packed in his sixties and easygoing banter, points to one of the documents littering his stand, posted in front of the town hall. “Read this, you will understand everything about the effect of the vaccine on our cells!” “ A woven basket stuck under her arm, Caroline Soumoy nods. Between two purchases on the market of Saint-Girons, a small town camped in the middle of the Ariège mountains, this teacher of French for foreigners comes here to look for ” the truth ” on the health situation. “I stopped listening to fear propaganda. We live in a dictatorship, people have to wake up ”, thunders the 57-year-old woman.
On the stand of the Couserannais Collective for the Defense of Freedoms, created in July to “resist” the implementation of the health pass, “alternative information” is distributed. Leaflets that narrate the high mortality “Hidden” linked to anti-Covid vaccines, or claim that the Delta variant is only “Grippette”. “You should say it, the pseudo-vaccine is actually gene therapy! “, calls out Mme Delort, a face free of any mask, yet compulsory in this crowded market. ” WHO [Organisation mondiale de la santé] she herself advises against wearing it, because you swallow what you spit out, advances the old die-hard GMO mower. They want to manipulate us, but we won’t let that happen. “
Far from being an isolated pocket, this stand is just one of the emanations of the intense mistrust that has taken hold in Saint-Girons. This town of 6,500 inhabitants, the largest in Couserans, in the west of Ariège, was renowned for its market. It has become a place of “resistance”. Producers of organic vegetables and fruits, permaculture enthusiasts, sellers of spirulina and medicinal plants, artisan jewelers or bakers from the 18 neighboring valleys meet there to sell their products on the banks of the Salat. Often neorural, come to settle in this wild land in search of a life against the tide, they pose as protesters of the “liberticidal” orders given from Paris.
In this agora where retirees and “cool babes” meet, as the Saint-Gironnais say for a long time, the non-wearing of the mask has become a political symbol. Human chains have been formed to protest against what some of the exhibitors call the “muzzle”. In September 2020, a refractory chocolate seller was expelled from the market, after several warnings from the police. Filmed, the scene swelled controversy beyond Ariège. The following Saturday, the trader in her thirties returned to her stand.
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