Macron tells critics: The vaccine passport will protect all our freedoms | France

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When the Great Plague struck Marseilles in 1720, killing more than half of the city’s population, travelers were ordered to carry a “sanitary bill” and ships arriving at the Mediterranean port were quarantined for 40 days. As a gateway to commerce, city authorities have struggled to find a delicate balance between stopping the spread of disease and harming vital commerce.

Three hundred years later, President Emmanuel Macron is walking an equally difficult tightrope just eight months before he seeks re-election in April 2022. And unlike old Marseille, Macron has to respond to social media.

On Monday, a contested pass in France will be extended with the aim of forcing the last tranche of hard-line skeptics to get vaccinated, leading to nationwide protests for the fourth weekend in a row. Last week, more than 200,000 people demonstrated, according to Interior Ministry figures.

The protests have united the far left, the far right, and many in between. While there has been little opposition to the imposition of face masks, opponents strongly believe that sanitary passage violates the most important French principles: the freedom and equality of the national motto. They were joined in Paris yesterday by Gillette Jones and a diverse cast of anarchists, conspiracy theorists and those who would compare the French president to Adolf Hitler and his centrist government to the Nazis.

Protesters pinned their hopes on the Constitutional Council – a nine-member body appointed by the president and leaders of both houses of parliament to consider new legislation – stifling any extension of the passage. They would be disappointed. On Thursday, council members, known as “the Wise Men,” upheld the constitutional legality of nearly all of the proposed new measures.

Next, Julian Audol, a young rising star from the far-right National Rally party said: “The Constitutional Council has approved a two-tiered society where there are two categories of citizens who do not have the same rights, depending on their vaccine. This is the case. This is Macron’s society and it is a society that we condemn and reject.” The principles of freedom and equality are sacred.”

Far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, a presidential candidate, agreed, describing the health card as “ridiculous, unfair and authoritarian.”

What shocks me is the lack of rigor, logic and scientific basis for many of the arguments François Arlio, physicist

Macron urged his compatriots to remember the third element of the motto, fraternity, calling on them to “accept these collective rules … and vaccination.”

“It is about citizenship. Freedom only exists if everyone’s freedom is protected… It is worthless if we exercise our freedom by polluting our brother, neighbour, friend, parents, or anyone we come across in an event. Then freedom becomes irresponsible.”

The health pass, which was approved by French MPs last month and is set to run until September 30, already requires those who go to cinemas, theaters and museums or who attend large public events to prove they are either fully immune, have a negative Covid test or evidence that they have They recovered from the coronavirus and recovered from it.

From August 9 this will be extended. Anyone wishing to dine in a restaurant or have drinks at a bar, even on an outside balcony, will need a pass as well as passengers traveling long distances by train or bus or visiting nursing homes and hospitals, except for medical emergencies.

As of August 30, all those whose job puts them in contact with the public must obtain a permit or face an unpaid layoff.

No one has been forced to vaccinate – except for health care home employees and the elderly as of next month – the government insists, but they are certainly under duress.

It doesn’t take much to send the French into the streets – which often leads to farcical remarks from outside the country that France is on the cusp of another bloody revolution. However, the protests in August, when many of them are on holiday, are unusual.

Sociologist Jan Viard warned that the protests were a “potentially explosive combination”. “It is difficult to define the borders,” he told French television.

Physicist and researcher François Arlio was surprised by how polarizing the responses were when he wrote a commentary in the left-leaning newspaper Libération directed at a friend reluctant to get vaccinated, urging him to get her vaccinated. “Think Pasteur, not Darwin,” Arlio urged.

“The responses were very divisive and frustrating,” he told the Observer. “What shocks me is the lack of rigor, logic and scientific basis for a lot of the arguments. I don’t want to give lessons but some of these educated people should know better. It is not very rational.”

But as with many protest movements in France, there is a paradox. Macron’s coercion appears to be paying off. Since the President announced the Health Pass, at least 7 million French people have been given the first dose of the vaccine. Currently, 63.5% of the population over the age of 12 is fully vaccinated and reservations about the central reservation system indicate that France will vaccinate 50 million people over the age of 12 with at least one dose by the end of this month.

Opinion polls also indicate that 60-70% of French people support the health card even though half of the respondents said they understand the protesters.

At Saturday’s demonstrations, some protesters were concerned and indicated that they were not opposed to vaccines in principle, but were forced to get them.

“This is a matter of personal choice,” Thibault said during a rally in Paris on Saturday. “Is it a risk? Life is a risk.” Another group walked with a woman dressed as Marianne – the symbol of the female republic – chained.

Arlio admitted that his appeal failed to convince his reluctant friend to receive vaccinations.

“No, unfortunately he hasn’t changed his mind. He says he will probably end up getting a jab because otherwise life would get too complicated. But he’s not happy about that.”

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