French police fire tear gas as protest convoy breaches cordon in Paris

A protest convoy breached police defences and drove into central Paris on Saturday, snarling traffic around the Arc de Triomphe and on the Champs Élysées, as police fired tear gas at demonstrators protesting against Covid-19 restrictions.

Protesters in cars, campervans, tractors and other vehicles had converged on Paris from Lille, Perpignan, Nice and other French cities late on Friday, despite warnings from Paris authorities that they would be barred from entering the capital.

Inspired by horn-blaring "Freedom Convoy" demonstrations in Canada, dozens of vehicles slipped through the police cordon however, impeding traffic around the famed 19th-century arch and the top of the boutique-lined Champs Élysées, a magnet for tourists.

Inside the city’s limits, motorists in the “Freedom Convoy” against Covid restrictions, chiefly France’s vaccine pass, waved French flags and honked in defiance of the police ban.

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On the Champs Élysées, clouds of tear gas swirled through the terraces of bars and restaurants amid the convoy protest.

Riot police also threw tear gas grenades to keep order at an authorised street protest where demonstrators, including some “yellow vest” protesters, railed against president Emmanuel Macron’s coronavirus vaccine pass rules and the cost of living.

France requires people to show proof of vaccination to enter public places such as cafes, restaurants and museums, with proof of a negative test no longer being sufficient for unvaccinated people.

“We can’t take the vaccine pass any more,” said Nathalie Galdeano, who came from southwest France by bus to participate in the protests.

Arrests

Police said on Saturday that they had arrested 14 people and had handed out 337 fines by midafternoon, and that earlier they stopped 500 vehicles that were trying to get into Paris in the morning.

Less than two months from a presidential election, Mr Macron’s government is eager to keep protests from spiralling into large-scale demonstrations like the anti-government “yellow vest” revolt of 2018.

That movement began as a protest against fuel taxes and grew into a broader revolt that saw some of the worst street violence in France in decades and tested Mr Macron’s authority.

Grievances expressed by protesters in the “Freedom Convoy” extend beyond Covid restrictions, with anger simmering over a perceived fall in standards of living amid surging inflation.

Police had mobilised more than 7,000 officers, set up checkpoints and deployed armoured personnel carriers and water cannon trucks in preparation for the protests.

Separately police also said they had arrested five protesters in southern Paris in possession of slingshots, hammers, knives and gas masks.

Canadian truckers protesting a vaccine mandate for cross-border traffic have paralysed parts of the capital Ottawa since late January and blocked US-Canada crossing points. Canadian police began clearing protesters blocking a key bridge linking Canada and the US on Saturday. – Reuters