Status: 12.02.2022 6:08 p.m
In Paris, around 7,000 police officers are on duty to stop a protest convoy from paralyzing the entire city. Eight weeks before the first round of the presidential election, the action is explosive.
Cars, caravans and pickup trucks block the Champs Elysées and try to advance to the Arc de Triomphe. The subways no longer go to the stops on the boulevard. The Paris police used tear gas to get those taking part in the unauthorized motorized protest out of their vehicles.
The motorized demonstrators protest against the corona restrictions of the French government, following the example of the truckers in Canada. They have not succeeded in completely blocking the entrance to the city. But some have made it into the city center. Celebrating their victory at making it to the heart of the capital:
We want our freedom back, that’s very simple. We are against the vaccination card, against all these paternalistic laws. We want our normal life back and are now taking our destiny into our own hands.
Police crack down on banned protest convoys in France
Friederike Hofmann, ARD Paris, daily news 5:00 p.m., February 12, 2022
Dissatisfaction not only with Corona politics
But the demonstrators are not only concerned with the Corona policy:
We pay two euros for a liter of diesel, that’s not normal.”
“Where do our taxes go, please? Not to the hospitals.”
“We only pay the debts of the state.”
“We want the government to step down, they’re all corrupt.”
“We want the referendum.
In Telegram chat groups, some even call for taking the Arch of Triumph.
fear of riots
On Saturday afternoon, however, the situation remained peaceful overall. According to the police, the unannounced convoys are just over 3,000 vehicles. But the security forces fear that there could be riots – like during the yellow vest protests two years ago. At that time, the triumphal arch was stormed and severely damaged.
That’s why 7,200 police officers, special motorcycle units and heavy equipment such as armored vehicles are deployed throughout Paris. 14 people have been arrested so far and more than 300 warnings have been issued.
Political explosive
Francois Bayrou, representative of the government majority in Parliament, today defended the actions of the police and the ban on demonstrations for participants in the so-called “convoys of freedom”.
We cannot accept that life is blocked, life and the city. We cannot accept that the representatives of a minority opinion prevent others from living normally. You just can’t block the capital.”
Representatives of competing political currents take a completely different view of this. The candidate of the extreme right Rassemblement National, Marine Le Pen, sees the protests as an expression of legitimate anger against President Emmanuel Macron:
That looks a lot like him. He could finally announce his candidacy in front of the picture of the Räumpanzer in Paris. That fits perfectly with his tenure. A reign of chaos, conflict, and discord among the French.”
“It all happened very suddenly,” Friederike Hofmann, ARD Paris, to the protest convoy
tagesschau24 5:00 p.m., 12.2.2022
Eight weeks before the first round of the presidential elections, the protest convoy contains explosive material. President Macron is notorious as the president of the rich, and both the radical left and the far right parties are trying to win over the very voters who are taking to the streets today: people who have to do precise calculations at the end of the month, who have left behind and not feel represented by the government in Paris.
“Convoys of Freedom” block squares and streets in Paris
Julia Borutta, ARD Paris, February 12, 2022 5:23 p.m