French police fire tear gas at Freedom Convoy protesters in Paris

Protests against Virus restrictions and Vaccine mandate have now reached Europe. In France, Police have intercepted hundreds of vehicles trying to enter Paris as part of a protest against  against  coronavirus regulations. Authorities have deployed more than 7,000 officers over the next three days in a bid to stop the demonstrators.  Police fired tear gas Saturday against a handful of demonstrators on the Champs-Elysees Avenue who defied a police order by taking part in a vehicle protest. Police set up checkpoints into the French capital on key roads and said they successfully stopped at least 500 vehicles from heading to the banned protest, but a few dozen vehicles were able to slip in and disrupt traffic on the boutique-lined Champs-Elysees. Authorities fired tear gas as they demanded that the demonstrators disperse, some of whom climbed onto their vehicles in the middle of the road to create chaos. 

Prime Minister Jean Castex said that authorities would be very firm if the group tries to block the French capital. The right to demonstrate and to have an opinion are a constitutionally guaranteed right in our republic and in our democracy. The right to block others or prevent coming and going is not, he told media. Castex also objected to the demonstrators calling themselves a Freedom Convoy. The word freedom should not be associated with virulent attacks against vaccination, he said, because freedom is not contaminating others.The groups were inspired by the self-styled Canadian "Freedom Convoy" which has disrupted trade on the US border and occupied streets in Ottawa.

Similar demonstrations have started to spread around the world. Austria and Belgium have banned such convoys from entering their capitals, with copycat demonstrations also emerging in Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, dozens of trucks and other vehicles — ranging from tractors to a car towing a camping van — arrived in The Hague for a similar virus-related protest Saturday, blocking an entrance to the historic Dutch parliamentary complex. Belgian federal police were urging people to avoid Brussels on Monday, including commuters, and said all vehicles coming to demonstrate will be escorted to a giant parking lot north of town where a protest will be authorized. Online chat groups, meanwhile, are encouraging French and Dutch protesters to join an attempted blockade convoy on Monday in Brussels, capital of Belgium and the 27-nation European Union.