Are Macron waiting for new “yellow vests”?
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian leadership was considering introducing “alternative” measures for those who did not do so would be vaccinated against coronavirus. He also mentioned the experience of France, where President Emmanuel Macron announced strict restrictions on unvaccinated people. Although these measures are still being discussed in Russia, mass protests have already begun in French cities.
On July 12, French President Emmanuel Macron said that residents of the country without vaccination or a negative PCR test from the 21st will be banned from visiting entertainment establishments & mdash; cinemas, clubs, theaters, concert halls. Since the beginning of August, even stricter measures have been introduced for the unvaccinated: they will not be allowed to go to bars and restaurants and even just to shopping malls, as well as to buy rail and air tickets. And from September 15, the employer will have the legal right to dismiss employees who refused to be vaccinated. & Nbsp;
This uncompromising policy of the French authorities had a double effect. On the one hand, following Macron's statement, more than one and a half million people have subscribed to the vaccine. On the other hand & mdash; Hundreds of residents in several cities spontaneously marched to protest the restrictions of the unvaccinated. As information about rallies spread to social networks, the number of protesters began to number in the thousands and their clashes with police became violent: protesters set fire to garbage cans and threw stones and bottles at the guards. In the French capital, where more than 2,000 people took to the streets, police even used tear gas. The slogans of the protesters were quite laconic: “Away with the dictatorship!”, “No” medical passports! “Etc.
In France, opponents of” hygienic passages “were harshly dispersed: footage of the assembly
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Everything one asks whether Macron's policy will be the cause of a new great uprising, as it was two years ago with the so-called yellow vest movement.
However, as Yuri Rubinsky, the head of the Center for French Studies at the European Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted in an interview with the Ministry of Culture, in this case the protest potential is still relatively weak & mdash; rather, it affects the overall fatigue of the French from restrictive measures. As for Macron, according to the analyst, he is forced to balance between maintaining quarantine and the objective need to revive the economy decimated by the pandemic.
& mdash; Despite the fatigue of society, the president remains credible. Of course, he has to deal with the prospect of an election until 2022, which he clearly intends to go to, & mdash; reminds of Rubinsky. & mdash; Therefore, at the same time, it must give priority to overcoming the economic consequences of the pandemic, but taking into account epidemiological indicators. This approach affects the whole: it is important that the Bastille Day celebrations on 14 July took place to a limited extent. The government is focused on protecting the most vulnerable sections of the population: elderly and young people, graduates who have been left without diplomas and jobs due to the pandemic.