French anti-vaccine convoy heads to Brussels for another banned rally

Belgian authorities are bracing themselves to prevent a massive convoy of cars, campervans and trucks protesting COVID-19 regulations from making their way to Brussels.

According to Press TV, the vehicles, taking part in a Canada-style protest convoy, are set to enter Brussels Monday where local officials have already banned a demonstration following a weekend demonstration in Paris.

As part of the so-called “European Freedom Convoy”, the protest is one of the several being organized across the world, inspired by the truckers’ standoff with authorities in Canada.

According to police, around 1,300 vehicles from across France had arrived near the French border town of Lille by late Sunday, with protesters brandishing French flags and chanting slogans such as “We won’t give up” and “Freedom, freedom.”

“We’ll go to Brussels to try to block it, to fight against this policy of permanent control,” Jean-Pierre Schmit, an unemployed 58-year-old protester, was quoted as saying by AFP.

Another protester named Sandrine, who came from Lyon, said the government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis had revealed that “we’re losing our freedoms bit by bit, in an insidious way.”

Authorities in Belgium have reportedly banned all demonstrations with “motorised vehicles” in Brussels and taken measures to prevent the blocking of the national capital.

A social media warning from the Belgian police says that demonstrators have been barred from travelling to the capital by car, with convoys being directed to a parking lot on the outskirts of the city.

Meanwhile, some participants in a similar demonstration organised in The Hague have also expressed their intention to go to Belgium.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on Friday had urged the demonstrators to abandon their plans to come to Brussels.

“I say to those who come from abroad: look at the rules in Belgium. We never had rules that were too hard and we don’t have so many anymore. So complain at home,” he said.

The rally in Brussels comes after 97 people were arrested at the weekend in Paris after thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of the French capital, defying the ban.