Researcher: Traditionalist Catholics took advantage of Corona protests

Profiting from protests against the state's Corona measures? According to a researcher, small and militant groups, mainly traditionalist Catholics, were able to do so. At least in France.

Traditionalist Catholics in particular have been able to benefit from protests against the state's Corona measures in France, according to a researcher. Although a minority within the Church, small and militant groups in particular had a "bigger shop window" through the demonstrations and were thus able to target young people, explained French political scientist Yann Raison du Cleuziou in Paris on Wednesday evening.

The researcher, who teaches at the University of Bordeaux, spoke at the panel "Pandemic, Freedom, State. Corona protests in Germany and France between social and spiritual motives", which was jointly organised by the "Religion and Politics" Cluster of Excellence  of the University of Münster, the German Historical Institute Paris and the Paris Goethe Institute.

Against separation of church and state

According to Raison du Cleuziou, in the course of the protests, conservative Catholics turned against traditional French principles such as the strict separation of church and state. State interference in religious matters, such as the restriction of masses, was rejected. But the criticism had also been directed against the French bishops who followed the state measures. "The traditionalists perceived this as obeying the state too quickly," Raison du Cleuziou said. On the whole, they had assessed "religious values as more important than health".

Thus, the motivation of the demonstrations differed slightly from those of esoterically influenced groups in Germany, as the Basel sociologist Nadine Frei explained. According to the researcher, she analysed mainly demonstrations in south-western Germany. Unlike the conservative Catholics in France, this esoteric milieu had a stronger romanticisation of nature. Here, "natural self-healing forces stood against the artificiality of the pharmaceutical industry", whereby the reservations were particularly directed against vaccination.

In general, the demonstrations were less about existential reasons and more about an "adolescent understanding of freedom", according to the scientist. The state restrictions were perceived as superfluous, since Covid-19 was "not a dangerous virus" in the view of the demonstrators. "That's when it took on a conspiracy-theory spin: There must be something else behind it," Frei explained. Opponents of the measures thus saw themselves as "critical experts" and "heroic resistance fighters".

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