Protesters reject virus pass, vaccine mandate

Some 160,000 people, including far-Right activists and members of France’s yellow vest movement, protested Saturday, local time, across the country against a bill requiring everyone to have a special virus pass to enter restaurants and mandating Covid-19 vaccinations for all health care workers.

Similar protests were held in neighbouring Italy.

Police fired water cannons and tear gas on rowdy protesters in Paris, although most gatherings were orderly.

Legislators in France’s Senate were debating the virus bill after the lower house of parliament approved it on Friday, as virus infections are spiking and hospitalisations are rising. The French government wants to speed up vaccinations to protect vulnerable people and hospitals, and avoid any new lockdown.

Most French adults are fully vaccinated and multiple polls indicate a majority of French people support the new measures. But not everyone.

Protesters chanting ‘‘Liberty! Liberty!’’ gathered at Bastille plaza and marched through eastern Paris in one of several demonstrations Saturday around France. Thousands also joined a gathering across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower organised by a former top official in Marine Le Pen’s antiimmigration party.

While most protesters were calm, tensions erupted on the margins of the Bastille march. Riot police sprayed tear gas on marchers after someone threw a chair at an officer. Other projectiles were also thrown.

Marchers included far-Right politicians and activists as well as others angry at President Emmanuel Macron. They were upset over a French ‘‘health pass’’ that is now required to enter museums, movie theatres and tourist sites. The bill under debate would expand the pass requirement to all restaurants and bars in France and some other venues. To get the pass, people need to be fully vaccinated, have a recent negative test or have proof they recently recovered from the virus.

French lawmakers are divided over how far to go in imposing health passes or mandatory vaccinations but infections are rising quickly. More than 111,000 people with the virus have died in France, and the country is now seeing about 20,000 new infections a day, up from just a few thousand a day in early July.

In Italy, thousands of protesters gathered in Rome, Milan, Verona and other cities, protesting the government’s decision to require a ‘‘Green Pass’’ to access indoor dining, local fairs, stadiums, cinemas and other gathering places.

In the northern city of Verona, several thousand people marched down the main shopping street, chanting ‘‘No Green Pass!’’ and ‘‘Freedom!’’ They included families with young children, medical doctors who said they are risking their jobs not to get vaccinated and people who likened the Green Pass decision to decisions by fascist dictatorships. The demonstrations proceeded peacefully.

Despite the vocal opposition, Italy’s new requirement, effective August 3, has led to a boom in vaccine appointments in Italy, where so far nearly half of the eligible population is fully vaccinated. –