President Emmanuel Macron caused controversy in France — and furor among opponents — by defending, in a very emphatic and unusual way among state leaders, the imposition of restrictions on people not vaccinated against Covid-19.
“I don’t want to irritate the French. I complain all day when the government interferes with them. But the unvaccinated ones I really want to irritate,” said the French leader in an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien published on Tuesday (4) .
Macron used the verb “emmerder” in French, a colloquial register of the language that can also be considered, depending on the context, a dirty word.
In the interview, the president answered questions sent by readers of the newspaper, and the controversial answer was given to a nurse who asked him about people immunized against the coronavirus who face surgery postponement because hospitals are busy caring for patients with Covid who chose not to be vaccinated.
For Macron, those who oppose the vaccine commit an “immense moral fault”. “They are undermining what is the solidity of a nation. When my freedom threatens that of others, I become irresponsible. An irresponsible is no longer a citizen,” the president said.
France recorded 271,746 new Covid cases on Tuesday, the highest since the pandemic began. The high number by French standards could be the result of data damming due to the year-end holidays.
But the moving average — a resource that considers the numbers of the last seven days and therefore presents a statistical scenario that is closer to reality — has also been breaking consecutive records since December 26th. Currently, the index exceeds 180.5 thousand Covid cases per day, according to data from the portal Our World in Data.
The average death toll — 196.7 this Tuesday — remains well below the peaks recorded in April and November 2020, but it has also grown since the end of last year.
Just over 73 percent of French people have a complete vaccination schedule — a relatively high number for the country that has historically been home to a strong movement of resistance to vaccines.
That means the share of the population Macron said he was “very eager to annoy” is roughly a quarter of the country — a pretty significant percentage in political terms, especially given that the French will go to the polls to choose their president in April.
The speech of the current French president had immediate political repercussions. The debate on the bill that provides for the requirement of proof of vaccination for access to various public places was scheduled for this Wednesday (5), but was canceled by Parliament.
“A president cannot say these things,” said opposition leader Christian Jacob of the right-wing Republicans. “I am in favor of the vaccine passport, but I cannot support a text whose aim is to ‘irritate’ the French.”
Other opposition members demanded that Prime Minister Jean Castex explain to lawmakers the bill and Macron’s speech.
“It’s not up to the President of the Republic to choose between the good and the bad French,” said Valérie Pécresse, a candidate for the Republicans for the Élysée Palace, adding that she was outraged by the comments and calling Macron’s term a “quinquennium of disrespect.”
The ultra-rightist Marine Le Pen also did not spare criticism of her opponent and took the opportunity to defend her candidacy for the presidency. “The insults to the unvaccinated French demonstrate that Emmanuel Macron will always go further in his contempt and his liberticidal measures. I will give the French back their freedoms”, wrote the deputy on Twitter.
For Éric Zemmour, also from the far right, Macron was cynical and cruel in his position. “This is not just the cynical statement of a politician who wants to exist in the presidential campaign. It is the admitted and accepted cruelty that parades before the despised French”, said the journalist and writer who has a real chance of at least going to the second round in the election presidential.
In the left field, Macron was also the target of criticism. Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris and candidate for the presidency for the Socialist Party, republished a report about the president’s speech, ironically questioning his declared intention to “unite the French”.
French Communist Party candidate Fabien Russell said Macron’s “gross manner” could not be interpreted as a joke. “Indecent and irresponsible observation of the President of the Republic! When we have to convince, unite, we don’t insult”. Russell also pointed out that there are millions of French people without access to health services. “[Macron] will it irritate them too?” he asked.
Leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon said Macron’s words were a “confession” that the vaccine pass bill would be “a collective punishment against individual freedom.” According to him, the president goes against the World Health Organization (WHO) by trying to coerce, not convince, the hesitant and creates a parliamentary crisis. “We didn’t expect this from an official speech,” said Mélenchon.
So the president’s comments, at least for the time being, have backfired and fueled the image of arrogance critics often attribute to him. The bill defended by Macron proposes that a new vaccination passport replace the current document, eliminating the option of presenting a test with a negative result for Covid as a health certificate.
If approved, the new law should go into effect later this month. The plan is to require everyone over 12 years old to present proof that they have been vaccinated if they want to go to restaurants, museums, gyms, cinemas and public transport.
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