In France, massive protests against sanitary passes

August in France is the traditional month of summer holidays, when millions of families go to the beaches of the Mediterranean, the Atlantic coast, and life in the capital and other large cities of the country, it calms down, acquires provincial slowness. But not this year.

Much to the surprise of local authorities, for a week in a row the French, despite the heat for plus 30, have been organizing mass demonstrations against sanitary passes and mandatory vaccinations for medical personnel, firefighters and a number of other categories. This Saturday, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 251 thousand people took to the streets of over 200 cities, and according to independent activists, there were at least twice as many.

In Paris alone, 14 thousand people of various political views, professions, and ages took part in these actions. Of course, there were also those among them who doubted the need for vaccinations.

But the majority still oppose the fact that now, without a sanitary pass in the form of a QR code on a smartphone, where a complete vaccination is registered, a fresh negative test or a transferred covid, they cannot get to cafes, bistros, museums, theaters, as well as to a plane or train. … And this is in a country where rights and freedoms since the Great French Revolution have been recorded in the genetic code of the nation. , “we are against apartheid, when the French were divided into two categories: one had more rights than the other.” Hence the angry posters in the hands of the protesters: “Down with the sanitary dictatorship!”, “We are for the right to choose!”, “Macron, we don’t need your pass!”

To the head of state, the demonstrators also recalled his words, uttered in April, when he was giving interviews to several regional media outlets. Then the president said that “sanitary certificates” will never become mandatory for visiting such familiar places as restaurants, theaters, cinemas. For the sake of fairness, we note that since then, France, as well as the whole world, has been attacked by a more infectious and aggressive strain “delta”, which has mixed the cards of the fighters against the pandemic. Therefore, while 37 percent of French people (poll Elabe social service) support opponents of sanitary passes, 62 percent believe that they are necessary for access to public places.

By the way, such a metamorphosis, as they hope here, is temporary, played into the hands of the local students. The fact is that thousands of young French and French women got the opportunity to make good money on the current restrictions: they are now actively hired by the owners of restaurants and cafes to check the sanitary passes of visitors. There have even been launched special platforms such as StudentPop, StaffMe to hire them. Working four to five hours a day, guys can make from 1200 to 1400 euros per month, and even more for medical students who are involved in conducting antigenic rapid tests.