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Thousands of French police on alert as ‘freedom convoy’ heads to Paris

Thousands of protesters headed toward Paris on Friday in convoys from across France, with many hoping to blockade the capital in opposition to Covid vaccination rules and other restrictions despite police warnings to back off.

Published: 11 February 2022 16:40 CET

Thousands of French police on alert as 'freedom convoy' heads to Paris

Supporters of participants of the "Freedom Convoy" (Convoi de la Liberte) gather on the roadside with French flags outside the Canadian memorial of Vimy, northern France, on February 11, 2022. - Since February 9, 2022, several convoys of vehicles mixing "yellow vests", anti-vaccine pass or opponents of the government have left Bayonne, Perpignan, Lyon, Lille or Strasbourg to end up in the capital, despite the ban from the police headquarters, as part of a citizens' action called "Freedom Convoy", inspired by Canadian lorry drivers blocking the centre of the capital Ottawa. (Photo by Denis Charlet / AFP)

Inspired by Canadian truckers paralysing border traffic with the US, the French protesters set off from Bayonne, Perpignan, Lyon, Lille, Strasbourg and elsewhere with the aim of converging on Paris by Friday evening.

Authorities in Paris have banned the demonstrators, as have authorities in Brussels, where the convoys intend to head next. Around 7,200 police and gendarmes will be deployed over a three day period to enforce the ban.

A police source said around 1,800 vehicles were estimated to be closing in on the French capital.

Protesters wave French flags as a so-called “Freedom Convoy” (Convoi de la Liberte) passes through Le Mans, western France, on February 11, 2022. – Thousands of protesters in convoys, inspired by Canadian truckers paralysing border traffic with the US, were heading to Paris from across France on February 11, with some hoping to blockade the capital in opposition to Covid-19 restrictions despite police warnings to back off. The protesters include many anti-Covid vaccination activists, but also people protesting against fast-rising energy prices that they say are making it impossible for low-income families to make ends meet. (Photo by JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER / AFP)

The demonstrators include anti-Covid vaccination activists, but also people angry at fast-rising energy prices that they say have been a devastating blow to the finances of low-income families – an echo of the “yellow vest” grievances that sparked widespread protests in 2018 and 2019.

They are demanding a withdrawal of the government’s vaccine pass, which is required for access to many public spaces, and more help with their energy bills.

“People need to see us, and to listen to the people who just want to live a normal and free life,” said Lisa, a 62-year-old retired health worker who joined a convoy of over 1,000 vehicles leaving Chateaubourg in the western Brittany region early Friday.

Like other protesters, Lisa has been active in the “yellow vest” movement that erupted over a fuel tax hike before becoming a platform for other complaints against President Emmanuel Macron.

The yellow vests often clashed with police, but Lisa said she hoped the protests on Friday would go off peacefully. “It would really annoy me if things got out of hand,” she told AFP.

After spending a cold night in a parking lot, the drivers in Chateaubourg set off in a long single file of trucks, passenger cars and campers as sympathetic passers-by waved from bridges.

“All kinds of people are part of this,” said Sarah, a 40-year-old tattoo artist from the northern city of Lens. “We’re citizens, we have families, we work and we’re all united against the government.”

Paris police banned the gathering because of feared “public order disturbances,” and said protesters who tried to block roads would face fines, arrest or having their driving licences confiscated.

“We must be very firm about this,” Prime Minister Jean Castex said.

Police showed off their anti-blockage arsenal on Twitter, publishing photographs of loader tractors for the removal of barricades as well trucks equipped with cranes or water cannon.

#Manifestation 📢 | Engagés en soutien des forces mobiles, des engins spéciaux employés par la @prefpolice seront déployés à #Paris :
🔵 Tracteurs anti-barricades pic.twitter.com/NT7kJ2M7Cg

— Préfecture de Police (@prefpolice) February 11, 2022

The protesters meanwhile shared information about police deployments around Paris, often via the encrypted Telegram messaging service, and exchanged tips about the easiest access routes.

“It’s important that we don’t interfere with other people on the roads,” said one activist, Robin, on his way from Illkirch-Graffenstaden in the eastern Alsace region. “That way we’ll keep the population on our side, like they did in Canada.”

Many demonstrators are planning to stay in Paris overnight, and then join protests on Saturday against the government’s vaccine pass.

Some then want to travel on to Brussels for a “European convergence” of protesters planned there for Monday – an event that has been banned by Belgian authorities.

Phil, a 58-year-old on his way by truck from Brittany, said his refusal to get vaccinated had created “upheaval” in his family and work relations.

“When you join a demonstration you feel less alone,” he told AFP.

The government has expressed some sympathy for the protesters, with spokesman Gabriel Attal attributing their anger to “fatigue and weariness” after long-lasting Covid restrictions.

But opposition parties should not be allowed to hijack the movement for their own aims, he said Friday.

“They are looking to gain political capital from this weariness and this fatigue,” he said.

The government also announced Friday a further easing of Covid rules, with indoor mask wearing set to go at the end of this month, except on public transport.

Attal also said this week that the vaccine pass could be scrapped in late March or early April, which would be just before the first round of elections on April 10, when President Emmanuel Macron is expected to seek a new term.

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Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.