For the sixth consecutive week, opponents of the health pass marched last Saturday in the streets of major French cities to express their commitment to the “freedom” to enter places at risk of contamination without having to justify a recent Covid-19 vaccination or a negative test. And for the sixth week, slogans born during the “yellow vests” movement echoed through the streets.
Although they are not necessarily in the majority in the processions, some opponents of the pass took the opportunity to once again don their fluorescent vests, which had been put away since the beginning of the year and the end of the demonstrations against the Global Security Law. Participant profiles, methods of organization, and the relationship to political recuperation… Between the movement against the government’s health policy and that of the “yellow vests,” there are as many similarities as there are differences.
To successfully bring nearly 240,000 people into the streets across France in the middle of August, the health pass protest was able to benefit from the online networks created during the “yellow vests” era. The Facebook groups and pages where different “acts” were organized from the winter of 2018 largely relay today the “anti-pass” initiatives.
In the latest study from IFOP, conducted for Le Journal du Dimanche, only 18% of Emmanuel Macron’s electorate in the first round of the last presidential election support the movement against the health pass. This figure rises to 74% among those surveyed who identify as “yellow vests.”
