Demonstrations against the health pass: "I'm asking for time and no one will give it to me"

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Some 161,000 people including 11,000 in Paris marched this Saturday in France to protest against the health pass, more than last Saturday, when 114,000 people demonstrated.

According to a report communicated by the Ministry of the Interior, there were in the provinces, "168 actions identified which mobilized nearly 150,000 people".

In Paris, added the ministry, they were 11,000, down slightly from July 17 when 18,000 people demonstrated. 

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Several groups were indeed scattered in the streets of the capital, where the day rhymed with processions and slogans to demand the freedom not to be vaccinated. Words that could be read even on the signs. "My body, my choices, my freedoms". But in the ranks, we do not find only anti-vaccines. Rémi, for example, his yellow vest on his back, is a caregiver in Burgundy. He doesn't object to the idea of ​​getting the vaccine, but refuses to “serve as a guinea pig.” “As a caregiver, I ask for time. We are in clinical trials so we should to have all the freedom to choose. Me personally, I ask for time and one does not grant it to me. I would be made redundant on September 15 and I cry every day ", he explains.

"We are not really in a free country"

The demonstrators denounce above all a restriction of freedoms with the implementation of the health pass.

"I got the vaccine because I wanted to. I'm very glad I did it freely, but not at the cost of such a strong restriction on my freedom. Even if we got the vaccine, we are not. really in a free country when you have to show a health pass to go have a coffee, "says Arsène, a student in Paris who has received his two doses of vaccine.

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This Saturday evening dozens of demonstrators managed to reach the Champs-Elysées by thwarting the police device. In particular, they went near the Arc de Triomphe, where traffic is still partly blocked. Some clashes are still ongoing between demonstrators and the police, who sought to disperse them with tear gas.