“Convoy of freedom”: where is the demonstration in Paris?

Europe 1 2:13 p.m., February 12, 2022

While the demonstration was banned by the Paris police headquarters, thousands of participants in the "freedom convoy" movement are at the gates of the capital this Saturday, February 12.

Four police trucks are still stationed at the entrance to the ring road, at Porte de Saint-Cloud.

But the vehicle control ends.

Traffic is flowing again.

It is here that the police intercepted a convoy of 450 vehicles in the morning.

Each car was inspected, the occupants questioned.

The aim was to prevent participants in the freedom convoy from entering the capital.

Two other convoys were intercepted at the entrance to Paris in the morning, one at Porte Maillot and the other at Porte de Champerret. 

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Demonstrations on foot were they authorized in Paris this afternoon.

But there will be no big point of convergence.

A priori, the gatherings will be rather scattered.

Some participants in the freedom convoy are currently heading for the Avenue des Champs Elysées, others for Place d'Italie in the 13th arrondissement, and still others are said to have planned to meet in front of the headquarters of the Pfizer laboratory in Montrouge.

Place de la Concorde in Paris is currently blocked by a hundred vehicles. 

Strong police mobilization

7,200 police and gendarmes are mobilized in Ile de France throughout the weekend.

"A lot of means have been put on the ground, starting with the armored means of the mobile gendarmerie, because it was necessary to anticipate the risk, even if it was not high", explains on Europe 1 David le Bars , Secretary General of the Union of National Police Commissioners.

"But this risk existed. The risk of blockage by heavy goods vehicles or by tractors and armored vehicles were planned upstream, in the event that axes were completely blocked. Afterwards, there are human resources. There are a lot of police and gendarmes who are engaged. The objective, I tell you, is that freedom be that of our fellow citizens and that they can circulate and live normally. So, it is 

No "tide" 

According to David le Bars, the scale of the movement was "a little overestimated".

"Everyone played at being scared", he underlines on Europe 1. "Because Canada is not France. And we know that truckers in Canada have their own trucks. In France ", the system is different. The mobilization was difficult to quantify. These are different groups, different movements. There are people, but it is not necessarily the expected tide".

Same story from the side of the sociologist Jean François Amadieu.

"In equivalent of a Saturday of demonstration, it is ridiculous", he observes on Europe 1. 

According to him, the movement will not be sustainable.