French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview published Tuesday that he wants to “piss off” unvaccinated residents by enacting legislation that would complicate their lives enough for them to get the vaccine.
According to Reuters, on Wednesday, French Parliament suspended debate on a pandemic-related piece of legislation “as opposition lawmakers demanded explanations from Macron, who earlier said he wanted to ‘piss off’ unvaccinated people by making their lives so complicated they would end up getting jabbed.”
Macron added in the interview with La Parisien newspaper that unvaccinated people are irresponsible and said that “irresponsible people are no longer citizens.”
French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal defended Macron’s remarks, saying “who is pissing off who today?” to La Parisien. “It’s those who refuse the vaccine.”
Christian Jacob, who is the chair of France’s Les Republicans party, told parliament Wednesday that “a president cannot say such things.” This remark came as they were discussing a bill which would make it mandatory for people to show vaccination proof to enter indoor public spaces. Mandates requiring vaccine proof or a negative COVID-19 test to enter certain venues have been in place for months, but the new legislation would omit the option to provide a negative COVID-19 test.
Last month, as I reported, it was revealed that French citizens aged 65 and older would lose their health pass if they did not get a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot.
The health pass, which was introduced over the summer, makes full vaccination against COVID-19, recovery from a recent infection, or a recent negative COVID-19 test obligatory to visit any restaurant, cafe, inter-city train transit, and visit movie theaters and museums. Last month, residents 65 and up who did not get their booster had the QR code on their health pass deactivated.
“France has historically had more vaccine skeptics than many of its neighbors, and pandemic restrictions have triggered many street protests, but nearly 90% of those aged 12 have now been inoculated, one of the continent’s highest COVID-19 vaccination rates,” Reuters noted in their report.
“I’m in favor of the vaccine pass but I cannot back a text whose objective is to ‘piss off’ the French,” Jacob said to parliament on Wednesday. “Is that your objective, yes or no?”