What if Melun, the former stronghold of the “yellow vests”, where movement leaders such as Priscillia Ludosky and Eric Drouet revolve, were on the way to becoming the capital of anti-tax in Île-de-France? This is what the latest data published by the National Health Insurance Fund (CNAM) and a recent note from territorial intelligence tend to demonstrate, erecting the Seine-et-Marne prefecture as an observatory of the “convergence of struggles”.
The health authorities have been worried about it for weeks: Seine-et-Marne, despite the opening of seventeen intended centers, is the third least vaccinated department (out of eight) in Ile-de-France. “This is due to the youth of the population of Melun”, advance Louis Vogel, the mayor (Agir) of the city, seat of the prefecture of the department. It remains that the complete vaccination rate at 1er August peaked at 33.7%, barely better than in Essonne and Seine-Saint-Denis, last in the ranking with 33.1%, against 44.8% for the region.
A breeding ground for revolts
The map drawn up by health historian and geographer Emmanuel Vigneron, on the basis of data provided by Health Insurance and published by The world July 26, shows that the east and south of the department, on the border with the more rural Yonne, seem more affected by this vaccination delay.
But the comparative vaccination index developed by the researcher also highlights the particular delay taken by Melun, whose inhabitants are even more reluctant to be vaccinated. “Yet even though the department is very large, there is no infrastructure deficit, notes Emmanuel Vigneron. But it is a territory which, traditionally, is wary more than others of the central power and its speeches. “
A breeding ground for revolts: it is in this part of 77 that the movement of “yellow vests” finds its origin, on May 29, 2018, when Priscillia Ludosky, resident of Savigny-le-Temple, a town located a dozen of kilometers from Melun, publishes its online petition denouncing the increase in fuel taxes, which collects more than a million signatures.
An iconic “spot”
And it is in Melun, a peripheral town, at the end of the transport lines from Paris, that another figure of the movement lives, Eric Drouet, administrator of the Facebook group “Angry France”. With its 300 000 members, it now feeds the anti-sanitary and anti-ax sling. The cover photo of the band’s page proclaims a proud “free zone”, in yellow on a black background. “There are 16,000 more subscribers since Macron’s speech on the health pass on July 12”, welcomes the truck driver.
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