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Extra police protection after dozens of attacks on French vaccine centres

The French government on Wednesday urged better protection of vaccine centres after some two dozen acts of vandalism were recorded against Covid-19 related facilities over the last month alone.

Extra police protection after dozens of attacks on French vaccine centres
Photo: Thomas Samson/AFP

The warning comes after high tensions over recent weeks as tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets to rally against President Emmanuel Macron’s health pass policy which aims to encourage vaccination.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin sent a letter to senior local authority officials at the request of Macron seen by AFP in which he urged French police to mobilise to ensure better protection for vaccine centres across the country.

According to the interior ministry, some 22 acts of vandalism against testing and vaccination centres as well as pharmacies have been recorded since July 12th alone. Almost 60 threats have also been recorded.

In mid-July, a vaccination centre in Lans-en-Vercors in southeast France was flooded with a hosepipe, causing damage to equipment. Slogans such as “vaccinations are the new genocide” were found daubed on the walls.

Last weekend in the city of Toulouse a piece of paper was found at a vaccination centre warning that “one day this will all be blown up”.

In a letter to healthworkers, Health Minister Olivier Véran said: “I will not accept any violence, any intimidation, any attack on your physical integrity or professional equipment.”

The protests over the last four weekends have mixed those who believe the health pass scheme encroaches on basic freedoms, anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists.

The health pass, which is needed to enter a cafe or restaurant and also to travel on an inter-city train, is generated in a QR code either by a full course of vaccinations, a recent negative virus test or a recovery from Covid-19.

The government believes the plan will ramp up the demand for vaccinations.

Member comments

  1. These must be related to the people that freed prisoners from the Bastille, how many was it, seven? I see intelligence doesn’t improve over generations.

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PROTESTS

Clashes mar rally against far right in north-west France

Riot police clashed with demonstrators in the north-western French city of Rennes on Thursday in the latest rally against the rise of the far-right ahead of a national election this month.

Clashes mar rally against far right in north-west France

The rally ended after dozens of young demonstrators threw bottles and other projectiles at police, who responded with tear gas.

The regional prefecture said seven arrests were made among about 80 people who took positions in front of the march through the city centre.

The rally was called by unions opposed to Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National party (RN), which is tipped to make major gains in France’s looming legislative elections. The first round of voting is on June 30.

“We express our absolute opposition to reactionary, racist and anti-Semitic ideas and to those who carry them. There is historically a blood division between them and us,” Fabrice Le Restif, regional head of the FO union, one of the organisers of the rally, told AFP.

Political tensions have been heightened by the rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a Paris suburb, for which two 13-year-old boys have been charged. The RN has been among political parties to condemn the assault.

Several hundred people protested against anti-Semitism and ‘rape culture’ in Paris in the latest reaction.

Dominique Sopo, president of anti-racist group SOS Racisme, said it was “an anti-Semitic crime that chills our blood”.

Hundreds had already protested on Wednesday in Paris and Lyon amid widespread outrage over the assault.

The girl told police three boys aged between 12 and 13 approached her in a park near her home in the Paris suburb of Courbevoie on Saturday, police sources said.

She was dragged into a shed where the suspects beat and raped her, “while uttering death threats and anti-Semitic remarks”, one police source told AFP.

France has the largest Jewish community of any country outside Israel and the United States.

At Thursday’s protest, Arie Alimi, a lawyer known for tackling police brutality and vice-president of the French Human Rights League, said voters had to prevent the far-right from seizing power and “installing a racist, anti-Semitic and sexist policy”.

But he also said he was sad to hear, “anti-Semitic remarks from a part of those who say they are on the left”.

President Emmanuel Macron called the elections after the far-right thrashed his centrist alliance in European Union polls. The far-right and left-wing groups have accused each other of being anti-Semitic.

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