Reporting by Zoë Pallier and Louis de Raguenel; editing by Gauthier Delomez
, modified to
11:32 a.m., February 09, 2022
DECRYPTION
Converge in Paris
this Friday, February 11 to try to block the capital, before trying to reach Brussels next Monday, February 14. A few weeks before the presidential election
, this is the slogan launched by thousands of French Internet users, angry at the restrictions decided by the government to deal with the health crisis
. In Haute-Garonne, in Saint-Gaudens, Sylvain for example plans to travel to Toulouse on Thursday before reaching the capital with other convoys. “We are there every Saturday to protest. There, it is another form of mobilization that would perhaps bring more visibility to the cause,” says the self-entrepreneur, opposed to the vaccine pass
.
A movement inspired by that of Canada
The sympathizer of the yellow vests intends to defend freedoms. As for the new mobilization, he adds: “Maybe there will be more passenger cars, motorhomes and vans than big trucks like the ones we see at the Canada
but everyone personalizes as they want.”This movement is indeed inspired by the one in Canada, called the “freedom convoy”, where since January 29, thousands of truckers from several provinces have blocked Ottawa, the capital, to protest the government’s health policy. The blockades led to a political and security crisis: a state of emergency was declared and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had to flee the capital with his family.
The threat taken seriously by the executive
In Paris, the executive considers the threat “very seriously”, while the price of fuels, trigger of the yellow vest crisis, has never been higher since the beginning of the five-year period. Several meetings have been held on Place Beauvau in recent hours specifically on this topic. As before each mobilization, the Ministry of the Interior asked the intelligence services to take the pulse of the situation and help with operational anticipation. According to a document from the central territorial intelligence service that Europe 1 was able to consult, the sleuths of the Ministry of the Interior are having trouble anticipating and defining this unprecedented movement, which raises real law enforcement issues.
An organization established on social networks
In Saint-Gaudens, everything is organized from Facebook group and Telegram messaging, where the antipass mingle with yellow vests and anarchist activists. Agathe, intermittent from the show, will not be able to make the trip but was keen to participate. “It’s an anger that is in me and that goes back more than two years, with the yellow vest movements, the rise in fuel prices … it’s a whole thing,” she said at the microphone of Europe 1, hoping that the movement will not be picked up by any political party.
In fact, what worries the territorial intelligence is that it considers the movement to be very motley, with essentially “yellow vests”, “patriots” and “plotters”. The mobilization is difficult to quantify at the moment, because everything is organized on social networks, although an estimate should be sent this Wednesday to the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin.
Which security device will be deployed?
The police and gendarmes have clearly noted that the road workers’ trade union organizations are separating themselves from the movement. They expect to see quite a few large trucks on the roads as in Canada. On the other hand, it will be very difficult for law enforcement agencies to distinguish cars participating in the movement on major highways from those of ordinary travelers. Another problem identified: what to do with several hundred cars that suddenly block the doors of the capital or the entrances to places of power in Paris?
If the device is to be stopped in the next few hours, large numbers of personnel will be deployed at the tolls surrounding Paris. The gendarmerie stands ready to deploy its armored vehicles, in the event that it would be necessary to push cars to a standstill or participate in difficult policing, as during the yellow vest crisis.
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