French anti-vaccination protestors described as “brainless” for using yellow star at demonstration

Organisers of an anti-vaccine demonstration in the French city of Avignon have been described as “brainless” for using the Nazi yellow star in their protest.

In the demonstration organised by a radical group of “southern citizens”, some 45 protestors marched through the centre of the historic city carrying banners showing yellow stars and comparing COVID-19 restrictions with Nazi persecution of Jews.

In an interview for a French-language website, one of the organisers conceded that France was “certainly not in a genocide” but that “these laws against liberty recall dark moments in our history.”

The Deputy (parliamentarian) for the region, Eric Ciotti, condemned the protestors as “brainless” and “outrageous”, while Fabienne Haloui, a local councillor, said that while protest was legitimate, the restriction of freedoms caused by the pandemic and lockdown can “in no way be compared to the persecution of Jews which ended in genocide.”

Sometimes it was “good to have a sense of proportion,” she added.

Anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination networks have become known as hotbeds of antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes.

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