France Braces for Nationwide Protests against COVID-19 Health Pass

The pass, which is an extended version of the EU’s COVID-19 travel pass, comes into force on Monday, and is mandatory for access to public spaces such as bars and restaurants.

Days after France's top constitutional authority approved the pass, calling it a "balanced trade-off" between public health concerns and personal freedom, protests are expected Saturday across the country for a fourth weekend in a row.

The health pass limits access to inter-city trains and planes to the vaccinated, and to people who can prove they have tested negative for the virus.

Critics accuse French President Emmanuel Macron of running a health "dictatorship" by forcing people to get vaccinated against their will. They say the pass limits their movements outside home — and implicitly makes vaccinations mandatory.

But on Friday, France’s Constitutional Council ruled that the measure complied with the republic's founding charter.

The key debate around the health pass has been the power of the state, explained Andrew Smith, a senior lecturer at the University of Chichester, in an interview with FRANCE 24.  Following the Constitutional Court ruling, Smith noted that, “this bill has now been subjected to a democratic process, to scrutiny, through France’s political procedures, and so it is republican, it’s democratic, something that has been done legitimately".

The health pass has been in effect since July 21 for cultural and recreational venues, including cinemas, concert halls and theme parks with a capacity for more than 50 people. But the new law vastly extends its application.

The biggest change concerns restaurants which will now have to turn away patrons who fail to produce the health pass. Many restaurant owners say it is not their job to enforce the law, checking each client for a pass.

Visitors to some shopping centres and department stores will also need the pass, as will visitors to hospitals or care homes and people seeking non-urgent medical care.

Last week, the French interior ministry estimated that 204,000 people had participated in the nationwide demonstrations.

The same turnout is expected at Saturday's protests, a police source told AFP.

Saturday's protests are set to take place nationwide with demonstrations planned in the southern cities of Nice and Marseille along with the northern city of Lille.

In Paris, at least three separate protests are scheduled to take place.