Citizens all over the world have had enough of COVID-19 restrictions and they’re through being quiet about it. On Saturday, thousands took to the streets of Paris, London, Rome, Athens, and other cities to voice their displeasure at new lockdowns, vaccine passports, and mandated vaccines for certain groups.
To borrow a phrase from the mainstream media, the protests were “mostly peaceful,” although in Paris, scuffles reportedly broke out between protesters and riot police. The protests in France were, reportedly, the largest and most contentious as the Macron government is attempting to make vaccine passports a vital part of life in that country.
The legislation currently being considered would require French citizens to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test result to enter restaurants and other public areas. The legislation would also mandate the vaccine for all healthcare workers.
According to the French Interior Ministry, approximately 160,000 citizens across the country took part in the Saturday protest. Protesters chanted “no to shameful pass” and referred to French President Emmanuel Macron as a “tyrant.”
“We need to wait a little bit before the French people can decide,” protester Ayoub Bouglia told the Associated Press, when asked why he was protesting. “I think a part of France is always going to be unwilling and that blackmail and threats won’t work.”
Protesters in Paris reportedly chanted, “Freedom, freedom,” and carried signs denouncing “Macron, Tyrant,” “Big Pharma shackles freedom,” and “No to the pass of shame.”
Of the protests in his country, Macron conceded that citizens are “free to express themselves in a calm and respectful manner,” but lashed out at those he claims “are in the business of irrational, sometimes cynical, manipulative mobilization” against vaccination.
And the protests were not limited to France.
In Dublin, Ireland, city streets were blocked off as thousands of citizens crowded near government buildings to protest a new vaccine passport system in the country. Protesters waving Irish, U.S., and pirate flags chanted “freedom” and “my body, my choice,” in regard to the experimental vaccines being foisted upon the public.
Protesters lamented that the Irish government was creating “medical apartheid” with its insistence on vaccine passports in the country.
Across the Irish Sea in London, thousands gathered to voice their displeasure at the U.K.’s track and trace app, which the country’s National Health Service calls “the fastest way of knowing when you’re at risk from coronavirus (COVID-19).”
Protests in the U.K. occurred after most COVID-19 restrictions were finally lifted on Monday. The U.K. has experienced some of the most draconian lockdowns in the world over the past year and citizens are finally able to take to the streets to voice their displeasure at the freedom-quelling measures.
In Italy, thousands gathered in Naples, Verona, and Rome to protest the continued use of the country’s “green pass” to be allowed into restaurants, museums, gyms, and other public places. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi defended the green pass as necessary to be able to reopen society.
Italian news agency ANSA reported that Italians were raising their voices against “passport slavery and the obligation to vaccinate” and the “dictatorship of the Green Pass.”
In Athens, Greece, police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse crowds gathered outside the Greek Parliament to demonstrate against mandatory vaccinations for some workers, including hospital personnel and nursing staff. Police reported the use of Molotov cocktails by some protestors.
Greek protesters carried signs which read, “don’t touch our children.”
In Australia, citizens took to the streets to protest continued lockdowns and clashed with police, while carrying signs calling for “freedom” and “truth.” Greater Sydney, Australia, has been on lockdown for the past four weeks amid a rise in infection rates. Residents are currently only allowed to leave their homes with a reasonable excuse.
Australian officials scolded the protesters for creating “super-spreader” events.
“We live in a democracy and normally I am certainly one who supports people’s rights to protest,” said New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard. “But at the present time we’ve got cases going through the roof and we have people thinking that’s OK to get out there and possibly be close to each other at a demonstration.”
Around the entire world, people are starting to understand that they’re not getting the whole story about COVID-19 and the vaccines being foisted upon them by their governments. A lot of people don’t respond well to the pressure tactics that state actors are using to get them vaccinated. And those people are beginning to think that there’s something more going on than simply trying to keep everyone safe from a virus with a 99-percent survival rate.
