French President Emmanuel Macron told one of the nation’s leading newspapers that he no longer considers the unvaccinated to be French citizens, and that his primary COVID-19 strategy is to continue to “piss them off” until they submit to his COVID-19 mandates.
The remark from Macron, delivered during an interview with French newspaper Le Parisien, has divided French politicians, and even has the country’s Communist Party candidate questioning Macron’s motives.
“I am not about pissing off the French people,” Macron told the readers of Le Parisien on Tuesday. “But as for the non-vaccinated, I really want to piss them off. And we will continue to do this, to the end. This is the strategy.”
He declared that “worst enemies” of “democracy” are “lies and stupidity,” then declared that his government is “putting pressure on the unvaccinated by limiting, as much as possible, their access to activities in social life.”
Macron’s government claims that 90% of its citizens are vaccinated. He promised to “reduce” this minority with further restrictions.
The French president repeatedly noted the minority status of the resisters.
“How do we reduce that minority?” Macron asked, rhetorically. “We reduce it – sorry for the expression – by pissing them off even more.”
NEW – Emmanuel Macron denounced France's 5 million unvaccinated as "non-citizens" and vows: "I really want to piss them off. And so we will continue to do so, to the bitter end. That's the strategy." (Le Parisien) pic.twitter.com/5DoSlBskMo
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) January 5, 2022
The fallout from his remarks led the French Parliament to come to a screeching halt as it attempted to debate an expansion of the country’s vaccine passport system.
French communist Fabien Roussel, a candidate for the upcoming presidential election, questioned “the real intentions” of Macron’s government, and whether the vaccine passport is meant to “piss off more” or “piss off less.”
“A president cannot keep the remarks which were made,” added Christian Jacob, president of The Republicans, another French political party founded in 2015.
As a result of the impasse, the legislative body finally adjourned at 2 a.m. local time. They will reconvene tomorrow afternoon.