Anti-5G activists gathered on Saturday in Lyon, Place Bellecour.

They reacted in particular to the words of Emmanuel Macron who had compared some detractors of this technology to "Amishs" favorable to the "return to the oil lamp".

Europe 1 went to meet the demonstrators.

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A group of around 300 anti-5G activists gathered on Place Bellecour in Lyon this Saturday.

The participants have formed a human chain to denounce a technology that they consider dangerous.

A few days earlier, speaking ironically of followers of the "Amish model" favorable to the "return to the oil lamp", the President of the Republic had provided them with an ideal raw material for their slogans.

The anti-5G people chanted "Macron, you're screwed the Amish are in the street" or "Long live the oil lamp".

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"It is deliberately placing the opponent in a caricatured position," exclaims Bertrand, who like many other activists did not digest the speech of Emmanuel Macron.

"We are asking that he keep his commitments on the Citizens 'Convention and his proposals. This gentleman was committed to taking the proposals of the citizens' convention without filter, and inside there is a moratorium on 5G with a real enlightened debate on the question."

Asked about the reference to the "Amishs", Bertrand continues: "We do not want to go back to the oil lamp and the ox carts. It is astounding to be treated in this way by this gentleman".

"We are not guinea pigs"

For opponents, 5G constitutes a health risk, explains Sandrine Larizza, member of the 5G stop coordination Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

"The dangers are now recognized by the International Agency for Research on Cancer because electromagnetic waves were classified as potentially carcinogenic in 2011 by this WHO annex. That is why we are saying today 'we are not guinea pigs'. We do not want this model. "

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Protesters take Switzerland as an example.

On the other side of the Alps, the 5G network has started its deployment, before being put on hiatus recently by the authorities.

The latter wish to conduct studies in order to have a more precise idea of ​​the real effects of a technology which is still little known.