Protesters displayed placards against the health pass during a demonstration in front of the Marseille City Hall. (Photo by Gerard Bottino/SOPA Images/LightRocket, via Getty Images)
- Passes are required to visit cultural venues such as cinemas, theaters and museums.
- Starting from Monday, whether indoors or on the terrace, dining in the restaurant or drinking in the cafe requires a health pass.
- According to current regulations, the pass will be required until November 15.
On Saturday, the protesters took to the streets across France for the fourth consecutive weekend, opposing the new coronavirus health passes required to enter cafes or take intercity trains two days before the new regulations take effect.
The new rules advocated by President Emmanuel Macron require a full Covid-19 vaccination, a negative test result, or a recent recovery from the virus to enjoy normal daily activities.
Macron, who will face re-election next year, hopes that the new rules will encourage all French people to be vaccinated against Covid-19 and defeat the virus and its rapidly spreading Delta variant.
But opponents who have gathered on the streets in the past few weeks believe that in a country that values individual freedom, these regulations violate civil liberties.
Starting from Monday, whether indoors or on the terrace, dining in the restaurant or drinking in the cafe requires a health pass. Intercity transportation (including high-speed trains and domestic flights) will be mandatory, although the subway system and suburban transportation will not be required.
Since July 21st, a pass has been required to visit cultural venues such as cinemas, theaters and museums. Its extension was approved by the French Constitutional Council on Thursday.
Read also | France protests Covid-19 “health pass” rules
In the few protests planned in Paris alone, hundreds of people marched from the western suburbs to the city center, chanting “Freedom!” and “Macron, we don’t need your pass!”.
34-year-old Alexander Forez wearing a mask said that this was his first protest and that he himself had recovered from the new crown virus. “The problem with the health pass is that our hands are forced,” the marketer said, adding that he “really finds it difficult to believe that its use is temporary.”
Later in the afternoon, other protests are planned across the country, including Lille in the north and Toulon on the Mediterranean coast.
– ‘vaccination’ –
According to the Ministry of the Interior, more than 200,000 people participated in the protests last weekend, and more than 160,000 people participated in the protests the previous weekend. The police do not expect the number of people to decrease this weekend.
Although many of the protesters were those who refused to receive the vaccine, some received the injection but opposed the principle of the health pass.
Government spokesperson Gabriel Attal said that the pass will be needed when the country is fighting the fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to current regulations, the pass will be used by November 15th. To avoid further restrictions.
Atal said:
This is an additional constraint, but a constraint that allows the place to remain open.
Macron, who is still in his vacation home in southern France, has used Tik Tok, a social media platform popular with young people, to convey his message in recent days.
“Vaccination. Vaccination. Vaccination,” Macron said in his latest video on Friday. “This is a question of good citizens… If we infect our friends, neighbors or grandparents, our freedom is worthless. Freedom is responsibility.”
Le Monde stated that Macron’s impatient decision with the protesters carries its risks, even for a leader who seemed to thrive on the streets during the “yellow vest” protests in 2018-2019.
“This is a dangerous strategy. Playing the street is playing with fire,” it said.
Since the announcement of the health pass plan, France’s vaccine promotion work has made progress, and the government hopes that 50 million people will receive at least one injection by the end of August. Almost 55% of the population is now double stabbed.
Approximately 25,000 new infections were recorded on Friday, and the number of cases is still high but stable. People still worry that overseas territories such as Guadeloupe and Martinique and the Mediterranean coast, including Corsica, will be hit by a large number of holidaymakers.
