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More than 100,000 people rallied across France on Saturday to protest President Emmanuel Macrons plans torequire a Covid-19 health pass to access public places such as cafs 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 Frances 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 cafs and restaurants including on Frances 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.

Frances Covid-19 infection rate has reboundedalarmingly 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

Butthe movehas provoked furious opposition among manyin France: some137 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 alibertarianbelief that obliging people to be vaccinated if they want to accesspublic venues and activitiesis aninfringementon 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 ananti-vaxxerbut that the state should not effectively coerce people to getinoculated.The government is going toofar, he said.

Some mainstream politicians have echoedthese arguments. Franois-Xavier Bellamy, a prominent young MEP for the conservativeLes Rpublicainsparty, and Loc Herv, vice-president of the SenatesCentristesbloc, 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. Macrons plans mark a backward step for personal freedoms,said leader of the far-rightNational Rally (Rassemblement Nationalor RN) party,Marine Le Pen,earlier this week. The health pass is an abuse of power,thunderedJean-Luc-Mlenchon, leader of the extreme-leftFrance Unbowed (La France Insoumiseor LFI).

LFI firebrand Franois Ruffin went further on Friday as he urged people to rally, characterisingthe health pass as a means of humiliation coming from an absolute monarchy in the form of Macrons government. Florian Philippot, Le Pens former right-hand man and leader of the right-wing populistLes Patriotesparty,declaredahead of Saturdays protests that they woulddemonstrate the power of the people in the face of a disgrace.

Various populistshave argued against the health pass on civil libertarian grounds, avoiding anti-vax statements. But many of Saturdays protesters thought differently.

Tellingly, when Philippot was addressing the Paris rally and introduced a man called Benjamin onto the stage, saying, Hegot vaccinated, but that was hischoice,there was an awkward moment of hesitation in the crowd,Le Figaro reported. It then erupted into cheers when Philippotsaid, But hes against the health pass! asBenjamin ripped up his vaccination certificate.

Embedded in the crowd, LeFigarosreporterrepeatedly overheardconspiracytheories such as that the pandemic wasorchestrated in advance and its all to make money for the laboratories. When Richard Boutry a former France Tlvisionsjournalist who now tours the country propagatingconspiracy and anti-vax ideas arrived on the scene, many demonstratorschantedhis nickname: Ricardo! Ricardo!

Were members of the Resistance; youve only just go to look at what happened under Vichy one minute different people have different rights, the next a demonstrator told Le Figaros 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 theVichy 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 Resistanceconstitutes a worrying manipulation of history,he continued.

It also shows something very specifically French about the anti-vax movement in the country.That language aboutdefeat, collaboration and Nazism its a big difference from what you see in Anglo world, where Nazis are, of course, often the bad guys many people evoke but its much more abstract.

Rise of QAnon

Polling data shows thatFrench anti-vax sentimenthaswanedas thevaccinationrollout proceeded in the first half of the year. Nevertheless, anOpinionWaysurvey published in May found that 20 percent of French adults would turn down a jabwhile13 percent are undecided.

The French Academy of Medicine has said the country needs 90 percent of its adult population to be fully vaccinated toreceive herd immunity and defeatCovid-19.

The popularity ofFrenchpseudo-documentaryHold-Upshows that Covid disinformation has a big audience inthis country.Endorsing anarrayof 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 tapestryof fantasy, including warning of a worldwide cannibalistic cabal of paedophiles hasgrownin France over the past year, boosted byFrench-languagemisinformation websites such as DQodeurs and FranceSoir (a renowned broadsheet in the years after theWorld War II,which closed in 2012 before re-emerging two years ago as a conspiracist Internet publication).

READ MORE:'Stakes are high as QAnon conspiracy phenomenon emerges in France

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 Frenchcitizenssee Macrons 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 workersto be vaccinated.

And the pass may well prove to have beena politically expedient move for Macron ahead of the presidentialelectionnext 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.

Macrons health passcould beespecially effective at winning over moderate voters who see him charting France a path out of the Covid nightmare and see themselvesas part ofa silent majoritystanding 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 partiesLes Rpublicainsand theParti Socialistewill not and cannot challenge Macron on taking a measured, sensible approach to the pandemic.

You dont 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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Conspiracy theories fuel French opposition to Covid-19 health pass - FRANCE 24 English