Last Updated on February 17, 2022
Video appears to show French protesters storming a shopping mall while refusing to provide proof of vaccination, only to have SWAT police try – and fail – to stop them as France erupts in protests, with more than 200 planned actions being taken in opposition of the country’s new vaccine passports.
According to Canadian journalist Marie Oakes, French protesters stormed a shopping center and refused to provide their vaccine passports “in protest to the mandatory domestic vaccine passes in the country.” Police then stormed the mall themselves, adorned in full tactical gear, but were “unable to prevent people from being in the shopping centre.”
Video shows unmasked protesters rhythmically chanting “Liberte!” and clapping, while some individuals wearing masks cautiously record the event. A second video shows dozens of police officers being cornered by protesters and retreating to an escalator in an apparent attempt to escape the confrontation.
People in France storm a shopping centre and refuse to show proof of vaccination in protest to the mandatory domestic vaccine passes in the country.
Police are unable to prevent people from being in the shopping centre. pic.twitter.com/lWEAZ3zndJ
— Marie Oakes (@TheMarieOakes) September 4, 2021
The protest appears to have been one of hundreds that occurred in France on Saturday. According to World News Here, “More than 200 demonstrations” against the vaccine passport were “scheduled for Saturday across France,” with “thousands of people” taking to the streets in Paris.
Five rallies were scheduled in Paris, featuring populist political parties, while other protests were held in cities and towns as far flung as Valence, Nice, Toulon, Lille, and Albertville, where protesters chanted “We are here, even if Macron does not want us.” Authorities expected between 130,000 and 170,000 people to participate in the protests.
Bravo à Montpellier !! Un peuple debout et solidaire est toujours maître de son destin !! Vive la France solidaire et citoyenne contre cette oligarchie qui veut prendre le contrôle de nos vies, nos enfants !! Vive la résistance !! #Manifs4septembre pic.twitter.com/kKswEOcSUG
— Vivre Sainement (@VSainement) September 4, 2021
Protests erupted earlier this summer in France and Italy, where the governments have instituted totalitarian vaccine passports that must be presented to move freely and engage in commerce, and have continued largely unabated. Despite severe public backlash, the United Kingdom is expected to institute its own European-style vaccine passport system later this year.
Meanwhile in Israel, one of the first countries to institute a vaccine passport and place severe restrictions on citizens who refuse to take the controversial Pfizer vaccine, the vaccines have completely failed to stop the spread of COVID-19. Israel has already given 2.5 million citizens a third dose of the vaccine, and today the country’s COVID “czar” told citizens to prepare for an inevitable fourth dose of the vaccine, and to expect to take an indefinite number of so-called booster shots into the future.
