After truck drivers in Canada blocked the capital as well as a major border crossing into the USA with their vehicles, demanding the removal of the Corona measures, this protest spread to France. Here, around 3000 vehicles tried to get onto the Champs Elysées and up to the Arc de Triomphe.
They too, along with other protests have been calling for the repeal of the Corona measures in France for months. The police already published after the first unofficial announcements of the protests that these protests were forbidden, but this did not stop the demonstrators from setting off from all parts of France in a "convoy of freedom" towards the capital.
The police then set up road blocks and carried out checks on cars heading for the centre of Paris. Among other things, they found slingshots and other weapons in the cars. Since it was expected that there could be militant clashes, the police also tried to keep the masses away from the protests with threats of severe punishments, such as the suspension of driving licences, fines of up to 4,500 euros and up to two years in prison. But these threats and the police deployment of over 7,000 police officers, water cannons and armoured vehicles had no influence on the will of the masses to demonstrate for their freedom. The demonstrators are no longer only concerned with the restrictions imposed by the Corona measures; the protests have long since developed against the government.
