- protest activity Condemned the new “Health Pass” system announced by President Emmanuel Macron.
- Approximately 200,000 people participated in the parade in the past few weekends.
- The government insists that the pass is necessary to encourage vaccination and avoid the fourth national blockade.
As rights groups worried about anti-Semitic sentiment in the protest movement, thousands of people again demonstrated on the streets of France on Saturday to oppose the government’s Covid-19 vaccination policy.
Saturday’s protests were held for the sixth consecutive weekend to condemn the new “health pass” system announced by President Emmanuel Macron, which they believe unfairly restricts the rights of unvaccinated people.
According to the system that has been gradually introduced since mid-July, anyone who wishes to enter restaurants, theaters, cinemas, long-distance trains or large shopping malls must present a vaccination certificate or a negative test certificate.
According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, about 200,000 people participated in the parade in the past few weekends, and the organizers claimed that the actual number was almost twice this number.
At the beginning of the Paris parade in the early afternoon, hundreds of people held flags and banners with the words “Freedom” and shouted “Macron! We don’t want your pass!”
The protest movement brought together conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers, former members of the “yellow vest” anti-government movement, and people worried that the system would unfairly create a two-tier society.
Read also | Despite protests, France has extended Macron’s Covid pass
The far-right leader Florian Philippot once accused Macron of turning France into a dictatorship and compared the Health Pass to apartheid at a rally in Paris on Saturday.
The government insists that the pass is necessary to encourage vaccination and avoid the fourth national lockdown. For every 10 Covid-19 patients admitted to the hospital, 8 or 9 of the unvaccinated patients are not vaccinated.
-Anti-Semitism concerns-
The Anti-Health Pass Movement has been marked by slogans and symbols condemned by Jewish groups and anti-racist activists from the beginning.
The yellow stars worn by some protesters were similar to the stars that the Nazi regime forced Jews to display during World War II, leading Holocaust survivors to condemn this offensive comparison.
Others were photographed holding signs with the words “Qui?” (Meaning “who?”), a coding reference to Jews accused of spreading Covid propaganda through the media and profiting from vaccination campaigns.
“What I found shocking was how it (anti-Semitism) appeared repeatedly and publicly displayed,” SOS Racisme principal Dominique Sopo told AFP. “During the yellow vest movement, it expressed something on the edge… Now the people holding these signs are not hiding, and the other protesters have not responded.”
The left-wing newspaper Le Monde condemned the rise of anti-Semitism in an editorial this week, calling it “a poison to society and a danger to all of us.”
It added:
Although far-right anti-Semitism has a long history, the current rise of conspiracy seems to encourage it.
Conspiracy expert Tristan Mendes-France called Covid-19 an “accelerator of anti-Semitism, because we see tragedies unfolding continuously.
“People who are caught in the conspiracy theory movement online are reminded of their anger and frustration every day because we are always talking about epidemics. It’s like sprinkling salt on an open wound.”
-Overseas crisis-
Despite the controversy, the health pass system has been effective in encouraging people to sign up for vaccinations, and millions of people have made appointments within a few days of the announcement on July 12.
Approximately 47 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, accounting for about 70% of the population, which is higher than Germany and Italy, and only slightly lower than the United Kingdom.
Read also | As France begins to implement the Covid Health Pass, new protests
The most serious Covid-19 hot pots have occurred in French overseas territories, such as Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, as well as the more contagious delta variants that have ravaged the Pacific islands of French Polynesia.
Polynesian authorities announced on Saturday that schools, restaurants and bars will be closed for two weeks, and the night curfew will be advanced an hour to 8 pm.
The person in charge of the island, Edouard Fritch, said that tourists were told to stay in hotels on the island, and the number of infections on these islands had increased 14 times in two weeks.
Data from the Ministry of Health show that in the past 24 hours, approximately 22,000 new infections have been reported throughout France.
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