Far-right and gilets jaunes find common cause in France’s antivax carnival

He has railed against immigration and called for Frexit. Now Florian Philippot, the former right-hand man of Marine Le Pen, is trying to position himself at the head of a wave of protests against restrictions being imposed by the government of President Emmanuel Macron to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Some 204,090 people, chanting “Liberté”, “Résistance” and “Macron resign” took part in 184 rallies across France yesterday against the introduction of the pass sanitaire — a health passport that from August 9 will be compulsory for those wanting to visit a bar, café or restaurant, the interior ministry said. This compared with 161,000 at similar protests last Saturday.

The protests — some of which turned violent — were joined by health workers angry at

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