French protests continue into fifth weekend following health pass enforcement

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators came out in France for a fifth weekend in protest of the country’s health passes that took effect Monday.

There were almost 215,000 protesters out Saturday in the country’s cities and towns waving signs reading “Pass=Apartheid” and chanting “Freedom, freedom,” Reuters reported.

The number of protesters is slightly down from previous weekends, when citizens rallied against COVID-19 health passes that were under consideration in the country; this is the first weekend of large protests since the COVID-19 health passes began to be enforced on Monday.

The health passes make it so a person can’t go out to eat, travel or do other activities without proving they are fully vaccinated, have natural immunity or recently had a negative COVID-19 test.

Most of the protests in France have been peaceful, but some violence has broken out between the police and protesters during the events.

French officials are calling on police to provide increased security to vaccination centers, which have been the target of more than a dozen attacks since July.

The controversial health passes were implemented as an incentive to get more individuals vaccinated amid a rise in delta coronavirus cases in the country.