French authorities made an all-out effort to prevent people from joining an anti-vaccine mandate protest in Paris styled after the trucker protests in Canada and designed to shut down the French capital, Politico reports.
Police have intercepted convoys of trucks trying to enter Paris and issued more than 200 citations to drivers attempting to block streets. Still, hundreds of cars, vans and RVs have met up in the outskirts of the city and attempted to go downtown. One convoy had more than 400 vehicles in it.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex defended the protest ban in Paris, saying: “The right to protest and to have an opinion is a right that’s constitutionally guaranteed in our republic and in our democracy. The right to block others … is not.”