The government on Wednesday defended President Emmanuel Macron’s use of a coarse insult in a stepped-up campaign against France’s unvaccinated after the phrase drew condemnation from the opposition and mixed reactions from voters.
Macron made comments saying he wanted to “piss off” unvaccinated people while calling those who choose not to get inoculated against COVID-19 “irresponsible,” according to Reuters, during an interview with Le Parisien newspaper, published late on Tuesday,
“The unvaccinated, I really want to bug them. And so we will continue doing so, to the end. That’s the strategy,” Le Parisien quoted the French leader as saying in a sit-down interview.
He was also quoted as saying “Irresponsible people are no longer citizens,” in another comment criticized by the opposition.
Macron actually used the slang term “emmerder” – from “merde” – meaning shit, however, most news services changed the term to “pissed off,” “annoyed,” or other terms they deemed less offensive.
The remarks came about as the French Parliament has been heatedly debating new measures that would allow only the vaccinated to enjoy leisure activities such as eating out.
“A president cannot say such things,” lawmaker Christian Jacob, who chairs the opposition conservative Les Républicains party, told parliament, according to CBC Canada. “I’m in favor of the vaccine pass but I cannot back a text whose objective is to piss off the French.”
Jacob went on: “Is that your objective, yes or no? We cannot keep debating without having a clear answer on that.”
Other opposition politicians echoed Jacob’s comments and demanded Prime Minister Jean Castex come to talk to them. The session was suspended shortly before 2 a.m local time and was due to resume at 3 p.m.
Macron did say that the majority of the French people, or about three-quarters of the country’s 67 million people are fully vaccinated, reports the New York Times. However, nearly five million French people have not received a single shot.
To remedy the unvaccinated situation, the government is pushing a bill through Parliament that will tighten the eligibility of France’s health pass by no longer allowing people to obtain one with negative tests.
This means that proof of vaccination – or, in some cases, recovery from Covid-19 – will be accepted, effectively barring the unvaccinated from large sections of French social life.
