Conspiracy theories fuel French opposition to
Covid-19 ‘health pass’
Issued on:
18/07/2021 - 17:42
Text by:
Tom
WHEELDON
More than
100,000 people rallied across France on Saturday to protest President Emmanuel
Macron’s plans to require a Covid-19 “health pass” to access public places such
as cafés and cinemas starting next week. In addition to traditional concerns
about curtailed civil liberties, conspiracy theories have fuelled the
opposition to making proof of vaccination obligatory.
Starting
July 21, a health pass (pass sanitaire) will be needed to access any of France’s
leisure and cultural venues serving more than 50 people, including cinemas and
museums. From the beginning of August, the pass will be required on any
long-distance public transport, in shopping centres or at cafés and restaurants
– including on France’s famed outdoor terraces.
The pass
must either include the QR code that proves someone has been fully vaccinated
in France or results from a negative PCR or antigen test taken in the previous
48 hours.
France’s
Covid-19 infection rate has rebounded alarmingly as the more contagious Delta
variant has spread, with the average number of new cases confirmed per day
soaring to nearly 11,000 from fewer than 2,000 in late June. The uptick
prompted Macron to announce the health pass restrictions on July 12.
‘Too far’
But the
move has provoked furious opposition among many in France: some 137 rallies
took place across the country on Saturday, gathering nearly 114,000
demonstrators (including 18,000 in Paris), according to the interior ministry.
Many
appeared to have taken to the streets out of a libertarian belief that obliging
people to be vaccinated if they want to access public venues and activities is
an infringement on their basic rights. “In no way does a president have the
right to decide on my individual health,” one Paris protester, who gave her
name as Chrystelle, told Reuters.
Lucien, a
young shop manager demonstrating in Paris, told AP he was by no means an
“anti-vaxxer” but that the state should not effectively coerce people to get
inoculated. “The government is going too far,” he said.
Some
mainstream politicians have echoed these arguments. François-Xavier Bellamy, a
prominent young MEP for the conservative Les Républicains party, and Loïc
Hervé, vice-president of the Senate’s Centristes bloc, penned a joint opinion
piece in Le Figaro this week in which they laid out their reasons for opposing
the measure.
“Opposing
the health pass does not make someone an anti-vaxxer,” they wrote. The
“essential problem” with the pass is that, “for the first time in our history,
people will have to present a document in order to do the most simple, ordinary
things”.
Extremes on both sides
But most of
the political opposition to the health pass has come from extremes on both
sides of the political spectrum. Macron’s plans mark a “backward step for
personal freedoms”, said leader of the far-right National Rally (Rassemblement
National or RN) party, Marine Le Pen,
earlier this week. The health pass is an “abuse of power”, thundered
Jean-Luc-Mélenchon, leader of the extreme-left France Unbowed (La France
Insoumise or LFI).
LFI
firebrand François Ruffin went further on Friday as he urged people to rally,
characterising the health pass as a means of “humiliation” coming from an
“absolute monarchy” in the form of Macron’s government. Florian Philippot, Le
Pen’s former right-hand man and leader of the right-wing populist Les Patriotes
party, declared ahead of Saturday’s protests that they would demonstrate the
“power of the people” in the face of a “disgrace”.
Various
populists have argued against the health pass on civil libertarian grounds,
avoiding anti-vax statements. But many of Saturday’s protesters thought
differently.
Tellingly,
when Philippot was addressing the Paris rally and introduced a man called
Benjamin onto the stage, saying, “He got vaccinated, but that was his choice,”
there was an awkward moment of hesitation in the crowd, Le Figaro reported. It
then erupted into cheers when Philippot said, “But he’s against the health
pass!” as Benjamin ripped up his vaccination certificate.
Embedded in
the crowd, Le Figaro’s reporter repeatedly overheard conspiracy theories such
as that the pandemic “was orchestrated in advance” and “it’s all to make money
for the laboratories”. When Richard Boutry – a former France Télévisions
journalist who now tours the country propagating conspiracy and anti-vax ideas
– arrived on the scene, many demonstrators chanted his nickname: “Ricardo!
Ricardo!”
“We’re
members of the Resistance; you’ve only just go to look at what happened under
Vichy – one minute different people have different rights, the next …” a demonstrator
told Le Figaro’s reporter – one of several comparisons he heard to the Nazi
Occupation.
On Friday
night, a vaccination centre in rural southeastern France was broken into and
vandalised with the Cross of Lorraine (a symbol of the French Resistance) and
graffiti saying “Vaccination = genocide” and “1940”, presumably a reference to
the year the Vichy regime was founded.
“I feel
there were likely fewer avowed and strident civilian libertarians than there
were conspiracists at these demonstrations,” said Andrew Smith, a professor of
French politics at the University of Chichester.
French
anti-vaxxers likening themselves to the Resistance constitutes a “worrying
manipulation of history”, he continued.
“It also
shows something very specifically French about the anti-vax movement in the
country. That language about defeat, collaboration and Nazism – it’s a big
difference from what you see in Anglo world, where Nazis are, of course, often
the bad guys many people evoke but it’s much more abstract.”
Rise of QAnon
Polling
data shows that French anti-vax sentiment has waned as the vaccination rollout
proceeded in the first half of the year. Nevertheless, an OpinionWay survey
published in May found that 20 percent of French adults would turn down a jab
while 13 percent are undecided.
The French
Academy of Medicine has said the country needs 90 percent of its adult
population to be fully vaccinated to receive herd immunity and defeat Covid-19.
The
popularity of French pseudo-documentary “Hold-Up” shows that Covid disinformation
has a big audience in this country. Endorsing an array of debunked claims, the
online film got more than 2.5 million views after its release in November, with
several famous faces including iconic actress Sophie Marceau sharing the video.
It is in
this context that the QAnon conspiracist phenomenon – which weaves falsehoods
about the coronavirus into a broader tapestry of fantasy, including warning of
a worldwide cannibalistic cabal of paedophiles – has grown in France over the
past year, boosted by French-language misinformation websites such as DéQodeurs
and FranceSoir (a renowned broadsheet in the years after the World War II,
which closed in 2012 before re-emerging two years ago as a conspiracist
Internet publication).
A boon for Macron?
Nevertheless,
conspiracy theories remain a marginal force in French society. “Most people in
France see that hard work and sensible policies are the route out of the
pandemic, not conspiracies,” Andrew Smith said.
It seems
most French citizens see Macron’s plan as one such sensible policy: An
Ipsos-Storia Sterna poll published on Friday showed that 60 percent of French
people favour the health pass and the accompanying plan to oblige all health
workers to be vaccinated.
And the
pass may well prove to have been a politically expedient move for Macron ahead
of the presidential election next April. “When Macron made his announcement on
Monday, plenty of people saw it as partly a public health measure but also a
campaign message for the presidential elections,” observed Paul Smith, a
professor of French politics at Nottingham University.
Macron’s
health pass could be especially effective at winning over moderate voters who
see him charting France a path out of the Covid nightmare and see themselves as
part of a silent majority standing against both the far left and the far right,
said Andrew Smith: “This policy changes the terrain of the battleground. The
traditional right- and left-wing parties Les Républicains and the Parti
Socialiste will not and cannot challenge Macron on taking a measured, sensible
approach to the pandemic.”
“You don’t
win the presidency through 117,000 people spread across the streets of France,”
Andrew Smith observed. “You win through sensible, evidence-based policy to end
the pandemic and restart the economy.”
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