Protesters took to the streets across France on Saturday for the fourth weekend in a row to demonstrate against health regulations which, from Monday, will mean that a pass will be required of those who wish to enter a cafe or travel on an inter-city train.
The new rules, publicly championed by President Emmanuel Macron, make it obligatory to have either a full course of vaccination against Covid-19, be in possession of a negative test, or be recently recovered from the virus to enjoy usually routine activities.
Macron, who faces re-election next year, hopes the new rules will encourage vaccination and defeat the virus and its fast-spreading Delta variant.
Opponents, who have turned out en masse in the past weeks, argue that the rules encroach on civil liberties in a country where individual freedom is prized.
From Monday, the health pass will be needed to eat in a restaurant or enjoy a drink in a café, both indoors and on a terrace. It will be obligatory on inter-city transport including high-speed trains and domestic flights. The passes will not be needed on metro systems and suburban transport.
The pass has already been required since 21 July to ensure admission to cultural venues such as cinemas, theatres and museums. Its extension was approved by France's Constitutional Council on Thursday.
In one of several protests planned in Paris alone, hundreds began gathering at Pont de Neuilly metro station on the outskirts for a march to the centre, chanting "freedom!" and "no to the health pass".
Wearing a mask, Alexandre Fourez, 34, said he was protesting for the first time and that he had himself recovered from Covid. "The problem with the health pass is that our hand is being forced," said the marketing employee, adding he "really has difficulty believing its use will be temporary".
Other protests were planned later in the afternoon across the country including Lille in the northeast and Toulon on the Mediterranean coast.
'Essential if we want to keep businesses open'
Government spokesman Gabriel Attal said that the pass which, under current rules will be required until 15 November, was essential to avoiding further restrictions as the country fights the fourth wave of the Covid-19 epidemic.
"It is an additional constraint but a constraint that will allow places to stay open," he said, while emphasising that there would be a one week "grace period" for consumers and businesses to get used to the new rules.
Macron, who is still at his holiday residence in the south of France, has in recent days repeatedly taken to the social media platform Tik Tok, popular among young people, to get his message across.
"Get vaccinated. Get vaccinated. Get vaccinated," Macron said in the latest video Friday. "It's a question of being a good citizen... our freedom is worth nothing if we infect our friends, neighbours or grandparents. To be free is to be responsible."
The centrist daily newspaper Le Monde says Macron's decision to show no patience with the protesters has its risks, especially with a presidential election on the near horizon. But the risks run across the political spectrum, says the daily, with enormous dangers for the far right National Rally, and for the left-of-left France Unbowed.
With the evolution of the epidemic worse that unpredictable, the twin accusations of irresponsibility or dictatorship are easily brandished, warns Le Monde.
