Police in Paris used tear gas and made arrests in an attempt to disperse demonstrators, many of whom are vaccine skeptics, known as "anti-vaxxers," who marched across France in protest of new coronavirus limitations.
Some of the protests began as early as Wednesday morning in Paris, while President Emmanuel Macron was watching the annual military march for the traditional Bastille Day celebration down the Champs-Elysees.
Protesters were recorded on video footage shared on social media aiming pyrotechnics at police as the protests continued into Wednesday night.
The demonstrators, many of whom are unidentified, are protesting the government's decision on Monday to require health staff to get vaccinated and to require citizens to present a vaccine health pass to enter most public areas. Those who have not been immunized must have a negative test result.
Following the news, a record number of French citizens made appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations.
Some of the demonstrators shouted, "This is in the name of freedom."
To disperse the gathering in one area of the French capital, authorities used tear gas.
The declared route was not followed, according to the prefecture of police, who also condemned the demonstrators' "throwing of projectiles" and "lighting of fires."
Around 2,250 people demonstrated in Paris, with similar protests taking place in Toulouse, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Nantes, and other cities. The overall number of demonstrators, according to the French authorities, is estimated to be around 19,000 people.
‘Health segregation' is a term used to describe the separation of people with different
According to the interior ministry, there were 53 distinct rallies around France.
Protesters screamed, "Down with dictatorship," and "Down with the health pass."
Yann Fontaine, a 29-year-old notary's clerk from the Berry area of central France, said he had traveled to Paris to demonstrate against the health pass, claiming that it amounted to "segregation."
“Macron is revolting because he plays on people's fears. “I know people who are getting vaccinated just so they can take their kids to the movies, not to protect others from serious COVID,” he stated.
The government's spokesman Gabriel Attal noted at the time, "There is no vaccine obligation, this is a maximum inducement."
“I have a hard time understanding how this could be seen as a dictatorship in a country where 11 vaccines are already mandatory,” he said, adding that after a year of examining the vaccines, “the time of doubting is long past.”
For teenagers who have only been permitted to get the shots since mid-June, the rules will be modified – “making summer hell is out of the question,” Attal added.
A huge majority of French people approve of the new safety measures, according to an Elabe opinion poll released on Tuesday.
So far, 35.5 million people – slightly over half of France's population – have gotten at least one dosage of the vaccine.
France has some of the highest levels of vaccination skepticism in the developed world at the onset of the pandemic.
Only 42% of the French population wished to be vaccinated, according to a poll done by the Odoxa polling firm and the daily Le Figaro in December 2020. By April of this year, that number had increased to 70%, with about 14% still adamantly opposed to immunizations.
