Protest convoy heads to Brussels
Belgian officials warn off Wuhan Virus demonstrators
Protesters hold placards and French flags during a demonstration against the health pass and COVID-19 vaccines in Paris, on January 15 2022.
Hundreds of cars, campervans and trucks taking part in a Canada-style protest convoy against Wuhan Virus regulations were preparing to enter Brussels on Monday where Belgian officials have already banned a demonstration following a weekend attempt in Paris.
Around 1,300 vehicles from across France had arrived near the French border town of Lille by late Sunday, according to police. The protest is one of several worldwide inspired by the truckers’ standoff with authorities in Canada.
Camped at a parking lot near Lille, protesters brandished French flags and chanted “We won’t give up” and “Freedom, freedom.”
“We’ll go to Brussels to try to block it, to fight against this policy of permanent control,” said Jean-Pierre Schmit, an unemployed 58-year-old who came from Toulouse.
For Sandrine, 45, who came from Lyon, the government’s response to the Wuhan Virus crisis had revealed that “we’re losing our freedoms bit by bit, in an insidious way.”
The latest self-proclaimed “freedom convoy” comes after 97 people were arrested at the weekend in Paris where thousands of demonstrators defied a ban on attempting to blockade the French capital.
In France, the demonstrators took aim at the “vaccine pass” required to enter restaurants, cafes and many other public venues and implemented as part of President Emmanuel Macron’s inoculation drive.
Belgian authorities have banned all demonstrations in the capital with “motorized vehicles” and said they had taken measures to prevent the blocking of the Brussels region.
Brussels police have posted on social media warning that vehicle protests are banned and advising against traveling to the capital by car, channeling convoys to a parking lot on the outskirts of the city as the only place where a static protest will be tolerated.
Some participants in a similar demonstration organized in The Hague have also announced their intention to go to Belgium.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo had however advised the demonstrators to abandon their plans to come to Brussels.
“We never had rules that were too hard and we don’t have so many anymore. So complain at home,” he said Friday.
