“We have been deprived of everything for two years. “Enora and Loïc came by car from the Jura to demonstrate this Saturday in Paris and testify to their fed up after two years of pandemic. Unvaccinated, they hope for the end of the vaccination pass. What also pushes them to mobilize for the first time, “is the fact that everything is increasing”. “We hope for a reduction in taxes on gasoline and on highways,” they say.
End of the vaccination pass, alert on the cost of living: these are the demands of the people interviewed this Saturday at the end of the morning by 20 minutes Place d’Italie in Paris. A demonstration of the yellow vests is planned there for 2:30 p.m. Participants of the “freedom convoy” are also expected there, while the Paris police headquarters has banned any gathering in the capital of these convoys from all over France. Saturday morning, the police carried out checks on the device. The prefecture announced that he had had 283 verbalizations at the end of the morning.
“Vaccinated to freedom”
At noon, at least two hundred people are already present in front of the shopping center in Place d’Italie, a large square in the south of the capital. “Macron, fuck you,” reads a banner. A man holds up a “vaccinated to freedom” sign. In the crowd, some are wearing yellow vests. The police are visible and observe the rally from a distance.
Laurent, who came to demonstrate from Nanterre, a town at the gates of Paris, did not wear a yellow vest for the occasion, he who has been following the movement “since the first acts”. He made “beautiful encounters” there and found there “an exchange on democracy”. He will vote for the presidential election, but does not yet know for whom. He had previously voted for Le Front de Gauche and France Insoumise, but does not recognize himself this time in Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s proposals on the health crisis. Not vaccinated, Laurent has “never done a test”. “It costs me dearly not to go for a coffee”, regrets this construction worker, who “did a lot of odd jobs”.
Street medics present
Around ten past twelve, horns sound: motorhomes and cars pass, some of which display French flags, one of the signs chosen by the participants in the “freedom convoy”. The demonstrators greet them by singing “We are here”, “Freedom”. A few meters away, street medics are getting ready, swallowing a hot meal from a local fast food restaurant.
A few minutes later, the atmosphere changes: police reinforcements arrive, demonstrators whistle them. The police approach and begin to supervise those present, while the start of the demonstration is not expected until two hours later.
Place d’Italie had been the site of a previous demonstration of yellow vests in 2019, a gathering that had been the scene of violence. Two figures of the yellow vests then filed a complaint against the prefect Didier Lallement, believing that his management of the maintenance of order had favored the emergence of this violence. The memory of this demonstration remained with certain members of the “freedom convoy”, who called this Saturday not to join this place, because of a risk of “nassage”.