From daybreak, processions of several dozen private cars, motorhomes and vans formed in Lille, Strasbourg or Vimy (Pas-de-Calais).

In the west, 280 vehicles according to the gendarmerie, more than 400 according to AFP, left in the morning from Châteaubourg (Ille-et-Vilaine).

A total of some 1,800 vehicles, according to a police source, were on their way to the capital at midday.

One of the coordinators of the event spoke to AFP of an action "of a phenomenal scale", without however quantifying it.

"There are people from all walks of life, not at all just fascists. We are citizens, we have families, we work, we are just united against the government", summarized from Vimy Sarah, a 40-year-old tattoo artist come from Lens to greet the convoy.

A heterogeneous gathering of opponents of President Emmanuel Macron and "yellow vests" who protested against his government in 2018-2019, this movement was formed thanks to social networks and encrypted messaging on the model of the mobilization which paralyzes the capital. Canadian Ottawa.

The demonstrators demand the withdrawal of the vaccination pass and defend claims on purchasing power or the cost of energy.

"Do not disturb"

Refuting any desire to block the capital, the participants hope to meet there in the evening, spend the night there and then swell the ranks of the processions against the vaccination pass organized each week on Saturday.

"It's important not to disturb other users, to keep the population on our side like in Canada", launched Robin, from a parking lot in Illkirch-Graffenstaden, in the suburbs of Strasbourg.

"You have to be very firm" in the event of blocking attempts, warned Prime Minister Jean Castex on France 2. "Vaccination is a form of respect for others," he said.

Demonstrators then intend to reach Brussels for a "European convergence" scheduled for February 14.

The Belgian authorities have however decided to deny them access to the capital, for lack of having formally submitted a request for a demonstration.

Participants in the "freedom convoy" gather at Vimy on February 11, 2022 in Pas-de-Calais Denis Charlet AFP

Calls to occupy roundabouts in the regions on Saturday also spread on Friday.

“I appeal to join all the big cities to occupy them, multiply the gathering points”, thus indicated in a video posted on social networks one of the initiators of the movement, under the pseudonym of Rémi Monde.

If participants appear as "apolitical" and "apolitical" citizens, government spokesman Gabriel Attal warned on Friday against the "attempt to instrumentalize" the political "weariness of the French" vis-à-vis face of the Covid-19 pandemic, two months before the presidential election.

The leader of the Patriots Florian Philippot, whose troops march every Saturday in Paris against health restrictions, planned to welcome the demonstrators on Friday afternoon at Place Denfert-Rochereau, in the south of the capital.

"we are not afraid"

The Paris police headquarters on Thursday decreed a ban on this mobilization in the capital because of "risks of disturbing public order".

A "specific device", in particular composed of "task forces" and kidnapping machines must be put in place "to prevent the blocking of roads, verbalize and arrest offenders", who incur six months in prison and 7,500 euro fine," said the prefecture.

Supporters of the mobilization filed an appeal to cancel the ban on assembly.

Before the hearing scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at the Paris administrative court, the convoys nevertheless maintained their course, animated by a spirit of conviviality and social bond similar to that which had permeated the beginning of the "yellow vests" movement. .

“We are never afraid of the people when we govern,” assured the Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire on CNews.

"But the French people, it is the millions of French people who are responsible, and who by getting vaccinated, by going to work, by continuing to run the economy, guarantee our collective freedom", he continued.

© 2022 AFP