The group takes its name, Convoi de la Liberté, from Canada’s Freedom Convoy, and like the Canadian protest, has brought together people espousing a wide range of motivations.
The Paris police issued an order on Thursday banning the entry of a convoy of truckers and drivers heading from southern France to protest against the country’s vaccination pass program, part of a movement directly inspired by Canada’s trucker-led protests. A first group of trucks and vehicles set out from southern France on Wednesday and was expected to be followed in the coming days and hours by dozens of other drivers departing from locations closer to Paris, all aiming to converge on the French capital by midday Friday. Although the scale of the protest is unclear at this stage, the main Facebook group behind the movement has attracted nearly 350,000 followers in just a few days.
