Cathy, from La Rochelle, offers hot meals, sandwiches and two beds to sleep at home on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning. Jules provides for “those who come up from the south and or from Spain” “a good welcome” with “bread, butter, coffee, sheltered dry toilets, tools and maintenance for the vehicle”. They joined the group “Le convoy de la liberté relief” on Wednesday. Like them, out of dozens of such groups, French people of all origins have been offering their help for several days to bring convoys of anti-vax demonstrators to Paris and then Brussels. Whether on Facebook, taking turns on Twitter or communicating via encrypted messaging loops, French antivax are mobilizing inspired by the Canadian “Freedom Convoy” movement.
On Sunday, thousands of people gathered in Ottawa, Canada, to protest against the measures of health restrictions weighing on the unvaccinated. Initiated by truckers opposing the obligation to vaccinate to cross the Canada-US land border, the movement left Vancouver, in the West, on February 23. The convoy of trucks traveled 4,400 kilometers to reach the capital and brought the city to a standstill for a good part of the weekend. Some blockages continue. The images of the crowd taking over the streets of the capital quickly crossed the North American borders and now feed the dream of French antivaxers of a convergence of anti-sanitary pass struggles around the world.
Planetary movement
On Monday, an Australian anti-vax movement inspired by the freedom convoy approached the federal parliament in Canberra, megaphones and placards in hand. The images have been relayed well by personalities from the French conspiracy galaxy and the project of a rally is gaining momentum. The president of the Patriots and political figure in the fight against vax, Florian Philippot prophesied a surge on Twitter: “It seems that the world house of cards of corruption has begun to collapse, and it starts from Canada! Trudeau is hiding! The wave will break over France!”
The president of the small VIA party and supporter of Eric Zemmour, Jean-Frédéric Poisson also displayed his approval on the American social network: “After Canada, French and European truck drivers are mobilizing. Support for #ConvoidelaLiberte! #TousAParis”. In twenty-four hours, 40,000 tweets used the hashtag #ConvoidelaLiberte, reported the Observatory of the influence of online radicalism of Release. A boon for the two politicians who have regularly shown themselves in favor of the anti-sanitary pass demonstrations, the mobilization of which has been declining for several weeks. The antivax heralds see this as an opportunity to seize to relaunch a dispute at half mast.
“Getting out of this global tyranny”
Idriss Aberkane, spokesperson and intellectual guarantor of the movement, was one of the first figures to give voice to the freedom convoy movement. He motivated his 172,000 subscribers on Friday, even before the Canadian mobilization of the weekend: “Did you know that a freedom convoy was going to be organized in France?” But the protest did not wait for the doctoral student to organize itself. Created on January 26 and followed by nearly 150,000 people, the Facebook group “The Freedom Convoy” intends to revive a mobilization similar to that of the Yellow Vests. Administrators and subscribers exchange photos of their caravans, French flags hanging from the back of the vehicle, with maps of the planned route. Schedules and calendars complete the planning.
A map shared on the Facebook group “Le convoy de la liberté” to organize the convergence of demonstrators towards Paris.
Screenshot Facebook group “Les convoys de la liberté”
The destination is now no longer in doubt, it will be Brussels. The World Freedom Convoy group continues to open channels in various languages on encrypted Telegram messaging in order to bring together antivax from all European countries in the Belgian capital. The opportunity is emerging to put pressure on the European institutions and the governments of the most influential member countries such as France or Germany. The goal ? A sibylline formula at the crossroads of all anger: “Getting out of this global tyranny”.
A demonstration without the truck drivers?
The various convoys must connect Brussels on Monday February 14, advance Release who obtained a leaflet distributed by World Freedom Convoy. Multiple dates, all contradictory to each other, however circulate on social networks. A confusion that does not frighten Remi Worldone of the figures of the movement, who multiplies the videos addressed to his community: “You have all heard a whole bunch of dates circulating, it is quite normal. As each major event approaches, a multitude of dates are launched to drown the fish. (…) So jointly, in discussion with several groups active in the field, we made the decision to join us on February 13, in the capital, in Paris.
Also in his message published on January 30, the self-proclaimed spokesperson for the “Freedom Convoy” claims autonomy for the movement: “We are counting only on ourselves. We are not counting on the truck drivers. If they join us, it It’s a good thing but we know they are taken by their unions.” Rémi Monde insists on purchasing power, the decline in retirement and agglomerates many social demands with health demands. A positioning that is combined with the heterogeneity of the social profiles present on the myriad of groups. We find former Yellow Vests, far-right activists, conspirators from the QAnon movement, country dance fans, fishermen and also… opponents of the vaccine pass.