Violent protests have been renewed in France for the fourth consecutive week in protest against imposing a health certificate and mandatory vaccination on caregivers.
Starting this week, only holders of the health certificate will be allowed to enter public places such as cafes, restaurants, galleries and professional exhibitions, or take a long-distance plane, train and bus rides.
Moreover, the Constitutional Council, the highest constitutional authority in France, approved most of the controversial law’s provisions regarding expansion of using the health certificate.
The Council also accredited the mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 for health workers in France. However, it refused to impose health certificates on minor children.
In the same vein, the Constitutional Court asserted that restrictions, voted on by parliament last month, "balance" between public health concerns and personal freedom.
Nevertheless, these protests are not linked to the "health dictatorship" as the demonstrators claim. They believe that President Emmanuel Macron is imposing the restrictions on citizens in violation of the principles of human rights and public freedoms, but rather a phenomenon and an excellent French habit.
In recent years, France has witnessed the ‘yellow vests protests’ where all motorists had to carry people with yellow vests in their cars across the country. They set up burning barricades and convoys of slow-moving trucks, blocking access to fuel depots, shopping centers and some factories.
The protesters were opposed to Macron's tax on diesel and petrol to encourage people to switch to more environmentally friendly modes of transport.
If you were there and visited Champs-Élysées at that time, you would see yourself in the middle of a Hollywood movie. At that time, the French police used tear gas for months against the "yellow vest" protesters with all means of escape or attack.
In these recent years, protests, triggered by unions and strikers, against the reform of the pension system aimed to make the government acquiesce to their demands and stop the "comprehensive system" of pension. The system is supposed to replace, as of 2025, the 42 private pension systems currently in place.
Whoever was visiting France at that time may have experienced the bitterness of the partial paralysis that affected the transport movement due to the continuing strikes.
Strangely, the demonstrations during that period took place even though this comprehensive system was not published and its merits were not even known. In addition, the amendments did not have positive or negative effects on citizens.
When these demonstrations are public, the transportation movement stops and it becomes extremely difficult to move from one city to another which make foreigners stay confused in hotels and airports.
Furthermore, universities and educational institutions close, and there will be no alternative to providing an additional financial budget for foreigners in order to change travel papers.
Macron, who made "changing the stagnant waters" in France a goal of his era, is used to such demonstrations as they represent a French thing. Nonetheless, they seem dangerous to the political future of his party.
Currently, the government is taking risks by imposing a health certificate and mandatory vaccination in an already tense social environment.
People in hospitals, students, railway workers, police officers, teachers and farmers expressed resentment due to the "yellow vests" protests’ movement. This type of protest causes tensions and stress in the streets, especially among the middle class.
More than four years ago, Macron, in charge at Elysée Palace, did not satisfy the rightist nor the leftist, as the French people are no longer trusting them, their ideology, or ideas. He caused a stir in the history of the Fifth Republic and in the fate of the national state.
Although the political societies differ from one country to another, the extent of their cohesion and strength in response to fierce wind and raging storms lies first and foremost in trust. I am certain that lack of this confidence has become the general rule, which will affect the entire French political body.
Contributed by Omnia Ahmed
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