Paris (AFP)
Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched Saturday, for the ninth consecutive week, in many cities of France to denounce the health pass, on the eve of the entry into force of the vaccination obligation for health professions.
In Lille, Clermont-Ferrand or Paris, nursing assistants, nurses or physiotherapists have joined the ranks of processions to denounce this measure which will be imposed on them from next Wednesday, under penalty of being suspended.
"We are up against the wall. On September 15, colleagues and I will be suspended without pay. The health system did not need that", despairs Corinne, nursing assistant for 30 years, from Franche-Comté to demonstrate in Paris.
Sign crossed out with a "pass to the trap" in the parade of Bordeaux, her colleague Maria, 50 years old, denounces "a diktat" of the authorities.
"We are threatened to stop our wages if we are not vaccinated", she enraged, "it is a total injustice".
After three weekends of decline, the authorities themselves predicted a surge in mobilization, a motley coalition of anti-ax, close to "yellow vests", far-right activists or, more generally, political opponents. of the government.
About 170,000 protesters were expected across France, including 30,000 in Paris, a police source told AFP.
The Interior Ministry had counted 140,000 demonstrators last Saturday and 165,000 the previous week.
Demonstration against the health pass and the vaccination obligation for certain professions, September 11, 2021 in Paris Thomas SAMSON AFP
This Saturday, according to the prefectures, they were 1,200 in Strasbourg, 1,700 in Rennes and Vannes, more than 2,000 in Lyon, 3,000 in Montpellier or Nice, 2,500 in Toulon and about as many in Bordeaux.
- "Buzyn puppet" -
In Paris, the demonstration of the "Patriots" led by Florian Philippot, at the forefront of the fight against the past, brought together a few thousand people at the Trocadéro, noted an AFP journalist.
On stage, the ex-number 2 of Marine Le Pen paraded to the rostrum hooded firefighters of the collective "Free firefighters", teachers, caregivers and lawyers qualifying the vaccine and the health pass as "barbarism", factor of "segregation" or "apartheid".
Florian Philippot at the demonstration of the "Patriots" against the health pass and the vaccination obligation for certain professions, September 11, 2021 in Paris Thomas SAMSON AFP
In many processions, the demonstrators welcomed the indictment for "endangering the life of others" of the former Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn, as part of the investigation opened by the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) on government management of the Covid-19 epidemic.
"Agnès Buzyn is just a puppet. She obeys orders," commented Rachel, a music therapist who was demonstrating in Rennes.
"I hope that all political personnel who have accepted the manipulation of a global pseudo-scientifism will stand trial."
Former Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn arrives at the Court of Justice of the Republic, September 10, 2021 in Paris Lucas BARIOULET AFP
"There is not one who managed the crisis well and it continued with Véran," added Pascale Guyot, nursing assistant in Clermont-Ferrand and FO union representative.
"If there is this indictment, it is also that there are a certain number of things which were hidden, which did not say", noted in Strasbourg Hervé Gourvitch.
A few incidents were reported in Paris at midday around the Champs-Elysées, where the police fired tear gas canisters to deny access to demonstrators.
Several people were arrested, according to a police source.
Other clashes pitted demonstrators close to the "yellow vests" and the police in the afternoon.
Demonstration against the health pass and the vaccination obligation for certain professions, September 11, 2021 in Paris Thomas SAMSON AFP
The symbolic threshold of 50 million people having received a first dose of vaccine, planned by the government for the end of August and then the beginning of September, has still not been reached.
Mandatory since July 21 in places hosting more than 50 people, the health pass has been extended to access to hospitals, except emergencies, bars, large shopping centers and 1.8 million employees in contact with the public.
© 2021 AFP