Wednesday, January 05, 2022
“I really want to annoy you”
Outrage over Macron’s testimony on the unvaccinated
Actually, the French parliament is supposed to be about a law for the corona vaccination certificate. But the debate has to be interrupted because an interview with Emmanuel Macron caused violent reactions in the opposition. The reason is the announcement by the president that he wants to “annoy” unvaccinated people.
A few months before the presidential election, France’s head of state Emmanuel Macron sparked outrage in the opposition with statements about the unvaccinated. Therefore, on Wednesday night, parliament interrupted a debate on the law for the planned corona vaccination pass, which should be required for access to trains and restaurants, for example. In an interview published Tuesday evening by the newspaper “Le Parisien”, Macron had announced heightened measures for the unvaccinated and said: “I really want to annoy them, so we will continue to do this until the end.” Basically, he doesn’t want to annoy the French, but the group of those who are stubborn is reduced in this way.
The statement overshadowed the vaccination pass debate, in which the opposition reacted with sharp criticism. “A president cannot say something like that,” said the party leader of the Conservative Republicans, Christian Jacob. Although he was in favor of the vaccination certificate, he could not support a legal text, the aim of which was to “annoy” the French. Without a clear answer, the debate could not continue.
Other opposition MPs joined Jacob’s remarks and called on Prime Minister Jean Castex for talks. “A president shouldn’t say something like that,” tweeted the head of the far-right Rassemblement National, Marine Le Pen. Left-wing politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon described the statement as “shocking”. Green candidate Yannick Jadot wrote in a vaccination appeal that Macron did not care about the people. Socialist leader Olivier Faure spoke of a statement that was not on the level of a president.
France had introduced a health passport in 2021 that denied people without a PCR test or corona vaccination certificate access to restaurants, cafes and other facilities. The government wants to convert this passport into a vaccination certificate so that only vaccinated people can receive it. This should increase the pressure on unvaccinated people.
“I’m not going to send you to jail, I’m not going to forcibly vaccinate you. So we have to tell you that from January 15th you will not be able to go to the restaurant, that you will not be able to drink coffee, that you will not be able to go to the theater or can go to the cinema, “said Macron in the interview. The president had already been criticized in the past for statements that were perceived as arrogant or condescending by parts of the population. He has later shown regret on several occasions.
In the interview, Macron also said he could well imagine running for re-election in April. “I would love to do it,” he said. Macron, who is considered a favorite in the polls, has not yet officially declared his candidacy. His employees are already preparing an election campaign.
“The election campaign has begun,” said Corona expert Eric Caumes. It was “probably a controlled derailment” of the head of state. The virologist also underlined the “desperation” of the nursing staff in dealing with unvaccinated corona patients.
The number of infections in France has continued to rise over the past few weeks. It was not until Tuesday that a record was recorded with more than 270,000 new infections reported in one day. Nationwide, the incidence, i.e. the number of infections per 100,000 people within a week, was most recently more than 1,800. A good 3,600 Covid-19 patients are in intensive care units, about ten percent more than in the previous week. About 80 percent of them are not vaccinated.