The French and Greek leadership shocked the public by announcing mandatory vaccination on Monday. The people will be required to have vaccine passports, and at the same time, compulsory vaccinations will begin. Huge protests began in both countries right on Wednesday.
Leaders in France and Greece announced a severe vaccination plan on Monday. The non-vaccinated citizens would be banned from normal life, socializing, doing business and travelling.
People would need to have vaccine passports to enter venues like shopping malls, restaurants bars, hospitals, bars, cafés and access public transport.
After hearing threatening warnings from French President Emmanuel Macron, people in Paris responded on Bastille Day with an unruly protest that led to French police using tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.
Photos and videos from the capital showed protesters erecting barricades from materials found at a construction site. Some building machinery left unattended was apparently set on fire as well.
“The police stepped in shortly after scores of protesters marched down a boulevard in central Paris on Wednesday without permission from the Paris authorities,” reports Reuters. “Some wore badges saying “No to the health pass”.
Police vans and riot police also blocked off roads in an attempt to prevent the procession of the protest.
The Gilets Jaunes is a populist movement that unifies concerns shared by both the left and right, meaning it could rise again as a rebellion against COVID passes if the French government persists in mandating such draconian measures.
French outrage wasn’t limited to Paris, either. Videos from around the country show protests in Toulouse and Marseilles in the south, Haute-Savoie in the southeast, and Nantes in the west, among other places.
Mass protests erupt in Greece after government bans unvaccinated from indoor public spaces
Similarly, Greece has seen a massive series of reaction-based demonstrations across the country, gathering tens of thousands of citizens in downtown Athens to oppose Monday’s announced mandatory vaccination for health care personnel and soldiers, as well as vaccine passport requirements to continue a normal life.
Large crowds of demonstrators were seen in Athens and Thessaloniki on Wednesday, numbered in the thousands according to the Associated Press, some reportedly chanting “Hands off our kids!” while others hoisted banners reading “We say no to vaccine poison.”
Forsided, 15.07.2021