Paris (AFP)

From Toulon to Lille, the mobilization against the extension of the health pass from Monday and compulsory vaccination for caregivers again progressed in France on Saturday, for the fourth consecutive weekend.

Some 237,000 people, including 17,000 in Paris, marched on Saturday, a level never reached since the start of the protest, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior.

That's 33,000 more than last Saturday.

And the number has more than doubled in three weeks, in the middle of summer, compared to the 114,000 demonstrators identified by the authorities on July 17, during the first weekend of actions.

Few incidents were noted, with only 35 arrests and seven minor injuries among the police, out of a total of 198 actions.

At 5:00 p.m., four people had been taken into police custody in Paris, according to the prosecution.

Firefighters in uniform, caregivers in blouses, "yellow vests" or far-right voters ... It is a very heterogeneous crowd that marched all afternoon.

The processions mixed anti-vaccines and pro-vaccines opposed to the extension of the pass.

Some were pounding the streets with their children, and sometimes for the very first time.

As last week, the crowd was stronger in the Southeast, where at least 47,000 people, according to the police, marched.

They were 19,000 in Toulon, nearly 10,000 in Nice, 8,000 in Montpellier, at least 6,000 in Marseille, according to initial figures from the police and prefectures.

- Anti-Macron slogans -

These rallies took place the day after a new pressing appeal by Emmanuel Macron to the French - "Get vaccinated", repeated three times - when nearly 66% of the population received at least one dose of the vaccine.

"Macron, your pass, we don't want it", "Macron, shut up, we don't want it anymore": slogans hostile to the president resounded in a Parisian procession - of several thousand people, including many "yellow vests" - very supervised by the mobile gendarmes.

"The problem with the health pass is that our hands are being forced," Alexandre Fourez, 34, who has already had the Covid, told AFP.

This employee in marketing has "really hard to believe that its application is going to be provisional."

In Paris, several thousand demonstrators took part in another rally at the call of Florian Philippot, former number 2 of the FN (now RN) and president of the Patriots, who called for "fully releasing" the government.

- "Vexatious and discriminatory" -

A good part of the demonstrators contest the imposition of the pass, a "disguised vaccination obligation", according to them.

They consider the constraint disproportionate and are particularly concerned that an employer may suspend the employment contract of an employee without a valid pass.

"I am not vaccinated and do not intend to be. If they want to force me, I will lose my job," a Marseille protester Celine Polo told AFP.

"I have health concerns which mean that I cannot imagine that people outside my health can decide for me," said this executive secretary.

Demonstration against the health pass in Neuilly-sur-Seine, August 7, 2021 STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP

From Monday, you will have to present a vaccination certificate, a negative PCR test for Covid-19 or a certificate of recovery from the disease to have access to cafes and restaurants, theaters or trade fairs, or to make a long journey on a plane, train or coach.

One of the demonstrators, Geneviève Zamponi, a retired specialist educator in favor of vaccination, considers the pass to be "vexatious and discriminatory": "The + prolos + can take the metro or the RER without a pass, but they will not have the right to 'going for a coffee is illogical,' said this Marseille protester.

About 3,500 people according to the authorities, 5,000 according to the organizers, demonstrated in Reunion, under partial confinement and strict curfew since July 31.

In Bordeaux, Gaëlle Faure, 23, a nurse at the CHU and not vaccinated, protested against the compulsory vaccination of caregivers: "A few months ago at the hospital, I was told that I could come to work if I was positive and today they explain to me that if I am not vaccinated, I am a danger for the patients, I find that scandalous! ".

More than a hundred people, including many traders, demonstrated in Cambrai (North).

Shops were closed there to protest against the control of the pass "complicated and which could create tensions", in the opinion of Morgan Sedrue, 36, manager of a bar, who fears seeing his clientele "divided by two" .

© 2021 AFP