Demonstrators against Covid-19 restrictions in France and the Netherlands staged protests on Saturday inspired by the “Freedom Convoy” demonstrations in Canada. In France police fired teargas at demonstrators on the Champs Élysées in Paris shortly after a convoy protesting against restrictions made it into the capital. Cars carrying protesters managed to get through police checkpoints in central Paris on Saturday to snarl traffic around the Arc de Triomphe. Inspired by horn-blaring demonstrations in Canada, the motorists waved French flags and honked in defiance of a police order not to enter the city. Police told protesters to move on as some climbed on their cars in the middle of the roundabout at the top of the Champs Élysées. A convoy of vehicles from across the Netherlands also brought The Hague’s city centre to a standstill earlier in the day. Several hundred vehicles during the day blocked access to the Binnehof, seat of the Dutch government, according to a report by public television. Police warned protesters they would be fined and arrested if they did not leave by mid-afternoon Dutch press agency ANP said most left the area calmly, but minor skirmishes broke out after the trucks drove away. “Horseback police dispersed a group of people and dealt blows...,” it reported. “At least two people were arrested.” Earlier French police said they had stopped 500 vehicles that were trying to get into Paris and nearly 300 tickets were handed out to their occupants by mid-morning. Less than two months from a presidential election, President Emmanuel Macron’s government is eager to keep protests from spiralling into large-scale demonstrations like the anti-government gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protests of 2018. Separately police also said they had arrested five protesters in southern Paris in possession of sling shots, hammers, knives and gas masks. About 7,000 officers have been mobilised for the weekend protests. Police have created checkpoints, deployed armoured personnel carriers and set up water cannon to brace the city for the protests. Railing against the vaccination pass that France requires to enter restaurants and many other venues, protesters have tried to weave towards Paris from north, south, east and west, waving and honking at onlookers from their car windows. Some convoys sought to avoid police detection on Friday by travelling on local roads instead of the major highways leading into the capital. Waving French flags and shouting “freedom”, the protesters organised online, galvanised in part by truckers who have blockaded Canada’s capital and border crossings. The French action has no single leader or goal, and comes as months of protests against French government vaccination rules in Paris and other cities have been waning. The yellow vests movement which began as a protest against fuel taxes grew into a broader revolt that saw some of the worst street violence in decades and tested Macron’s authority. Police have allowed two street marches by anti-vaccine and yellow vest demonstrators to go ahead in Paris on Saturday afternoon.