The streets of France were flooded for the ninth straight week with protesters against President Emmanuel Macron’s vaccine passport scheme, with an estimated 121,000 demonstrators marching throughout the country, including about 19,000 in Paris.
In the French capital, there were four demonstrations against the pass sanitaire (vaccine passport) on Saturday, with demonstrators chanting “Macron, your pass, we do not want it,” “Macron, resign,” and “no to dictatorship”.
One protester told the French broadcaster La Chaîne Info (LCI): “My fear is the total loss of freedoms and the vaccination of children,” adding: “I don’t want to be forced to show a QR code to go out, I want to keep my privacy confidential.”
Aside from the draconian health pass system, the demonstrators also protested against the upcoming vaccine mandate for healthcare workers, which is set to be imposed on September 15th.
“We are at the foot of the wall,” said a female healthcare worker who came from Franche-Comté to demonstrate in Paris.
“On September 15, my colleagues and I will be suspended without pay. The health system did not need that,” she lamented.
As is somewhat customary for protests in Paris, the police were seen clashing with the demonstrators, firing tear gas into the crowds, who in turn threw street furniture at officers.
According to the Ministry of Interior, 76 people were arrested at demonstrations throughout the country, including 70 in Paris.
Footage shared on social media from a demonstration in Toulouse also showed demonstrators clashing with each other. At the time of this reporting, an official reason for the violent outbreak has not been confirmed.
Saturday’s protests came just one day after the former Health Minister Agnes Buzyn was charged by prosecutors in a special court in Paris for “endangering the lives of others” by her policies at the outset of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
The protests in France were mirrored across continental Europe with 150,000 taking to the streets of the Netherlands against proposed restrictions on nightlife, and 15,000 in Greece, where police fired water cannons and tear gas at protesters.
Protests were also staged in 120 cities throughout Italy against the introduction of the so-called ‘Green Pass’ which acts as a vaccine passport for pubs, restaurants, and other public venues.
This week Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi announced that his government would be extending the vaccine passport as a requirement for employment in schools and the healthcare industries.
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