Since Wednesday, these first French “freedom convoys”, inspired by the protest born in Canada, have left by car, motorhome or carpool from Nice, Bayonne or even Perpignan and were to continue to set off on Friday morning from towns closest to Paris.
From daybreak, processions of several dozen private cars, motorhomes and vans formed in Lille, Strasbourg or Vimy (Pas-de-Calais). In the west, 280 vehicles according to the gendarmerie, more than 400 according to AFP, left in the morning from Châteaubourg (Ille-et-Vilaine).
Some 2,600 vehicles, according to the police, were on their way to the capital in the early afternoon. It is an action “on a phenomenal scale”, told AFP a coordinator of the movement.
The movement, initiated a week ago on social networks, presents itself as “the step after” anti-government street demonstrations, “yellow vests” and more recently opponents of the health pass, according to the organizers.
Prohibited in Paris and Brussels
“If people want to demonstrate normally, they can do it. If they want to block traffic, we will intervene, ”warned Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on LCI on Thursday evening. “It’s not the shit the French Republic”, launched Mr. Darmanin.
Refuting any attempt to block, the participants hope to converge in the evening towards Paris, spend the night there each as they can, then participate on Saturday in the various weekly processions against the vaccine pass organized in the capital.
Some will then try to rally Brussels for a “European convergence” scheduled for Monday, February 14. However, the Belgian authorities have decided to deny them access to the capital, since they did not request it.
In Paris, the Paris police headquarters also decreed a ban on this mobilization on Thursday for “risks of disturbing public order”. A “specific device”, in particular composed of “task forces” and kidnapping machines must be put in place “to prevent the blocking of roads, verbalize and arrest offenders”, who incur six months in prison and 7 500 euros fine “, insisted the prefecture.
To counter the ban, the lawyer Juan Branco or the anti-vaccine activist Sophie Tissier announced Thursday that they had filed a summary freedom procedure before the Paris administrative court. A hearing is scheduled for Friday at 2:30 p.m.
In the meantime, the participants were refining their sneaking strategy on Thursday evening in the event of a police check. Friday “reply that you are going to the Parc des Princes to see the PSG-Rennes match, Saturday “at the authorized demonstration of the Patriots” and Sunday “at the Pécresse meeting at the Zenith”, wrote to his comrades on a mutual aid group one conveyors.
Parallel with the yellow vests
In the spirit of conviviality and social ties that had marked the beginning of the movement of “yellow vests” around roundabouts in 2018, several convoys spent the night in rest stops or with individuals who had opened their accommodation or car park.
“These first departures give a lot of hope, it fills the heart and it is the objective of this movement, to set up an active chain of solidarity, from accommodation to packed lunches”, commented to AFP , one of the initiators of the movement, under the pseudonym of Rémi Monde.
At the forefront of the demands of the participants: “the withdrawal […] of the past and all measures of constraint or pressure linked to vaccination”, in addition to measures on purchasing power or the cost of energy.
Political supporters
“We demonstrated, and we can continue but we see that it only leads to confrontation, repression and violence”, explained the initiator, “we want to try something else, and see what the response will be. of the government in the face of pacifist and joyful people”.
Several presidential candidates have given their support to this movement, including Marine Le Pen, Eric Zemmour or the radical left party La France insoumise (LFI) which has “encouraged” its activists who wish to join this movement.