Those who call themselves "freedom convoys", on the model of the mobilization which is currently paralyzing the Canadian capital Ottawa, bring together opponents of the vaccine pass but also of President Emmanuel Macron and also take up the demands of the "yellow vests" on the Cost of life.

According to a police source, the convoys should reach Lille airport and then reach Brussels on Monday.

Maintaining the device

A hundred motorhomes spent the night from Saturday to Sunday in the Bois de Boulogne, 220 vehicles in Seine-et-Marne and 120 in Val-d'Oise, according to a police source.

Coming from all over France, convoys of cars, motorhomes and vans converged on the weekend towards Paris.

But, if the police had counted 3,000 vehicles for 5,000 demonstrators around Paris on Friday evening, all the convoys did not ultimately reach the capital.

In the same way, all the participants did not intend on Sunday morning to continue the road to Brussels, according to a police source.

In a tweet, the police headquarters also indicated that it was maintaining "its vigilance to prevent blockages at the gates of Paris with reinforced checks throughout the day".

Some 7,500 members of the police have been mobilized by the Paris police headquarters since Friday and until Monday.

Early Saturday afternoon, more than a hundred vehicles had managed to reach the Champs-Élysées, which were gradually evacuated by the police with tear gas.

A handful of diehards, however, remained until late at night from Saturday to Sunday in the Champs-Élysées district and in the Bois de Boulogne, forcing, according to the police headquarters (PP), the police to intervene. to "verbalize and disperse" the last participants in this demonstration banned by the prefect Didier Lallement.

The police carried out 97 arrests and 513 verbalizations of opponents of health measures participating in anti-pass convoys on Saturday in Paris, according to an overall report communicated on Sunday by the PP.

81 police custody

According to the prosecution, at 6 a.m., 81 people were in police custody, including Jérôme Rodrigues, one of the faces of the "yellow vests" movement and active support of the anti-pass convoys.

Arrested near the Elysée, he was placed in police custody for "organization of a prohibited demonstration and participation in a group formed with a view to committing violence", according to this source.

Jérôme Rodrigues, one of the figures of the "yellow vests" movement, films the demonstration which takes place in Place d'Italie in Paris, on February 12, 2022 Sameer Al-DOUMY AFP

Mr. Rodrigues “wishes to indicate that he is in no way the organizer of this demonstration” and considers that he is a “political prisoner”, his lawyer David Libeskind said in a press release on Sunday.

In addition, the Paris police prefect on Sunday requested an internal administrative investigation following the broadcast on social networks of a video showing a policeman pointing his weapon at a motorist on Saturday, Place de l'Etoile in Paris.

“A video is currently circulating on social networks following a police intervention on the Champs-Elysées. The prefect is having an internal administrative investigation launched,” tweeted the PP.

© 2022 AFP