French President "really wants to annoy" non-vaccinated

"In a democracy, the worst enemy is lies and stupidity. We put pressure on the non-vaccinated by limiting for them, as much as possible, access to the activities of social life", Macron said in an interview with readers of Le Parisien published on Tuesday. The President of the Republic, who mentioned several issues, spoke about vaccination in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

After mentioning "the small minority that is resistant", the Head of State proposed to reduce it "by annoying it even more". He added shortly afterwards to support his point of view on the question: "I am not in favour of annoying the French. I complain all day long about the administration when it blocks them. Well, in this case, the non-vaccinated, I really want to annoy them. We're going to keep on doing it until the end."

Macron used the French term 'emmerder', an unusual slang word for ministers that means as much as to "piss off".

In the words of the president "almost all people, over 90 per cent, have embraced" the vaccination.

Strategy

"That's the strategy. I'm not going to put them in prison; I'm not going to vaccinate them by force," Macron detailed to the newspaper. And so, we must tell them: from 15 January, you will no longer be able to go to the restaurant, you will no longer be able to take a gun, you will no longer be able to go for a coffee, you will no longer be able to go to the theatre, you will no longer be able to go to the cinema..."

Macron is not in favour of the possibility that non-vaccinated people give up being taken care of in the resuscitation services. "You can't put caregivers in front of that. Because a carer looks at someone who is ill and does not look at where they come from, what they are", the president said.

Unworthy

Macron's statements have caused great indignation. French left-wing presidential candidate and MP Jean-Luc Mélenchon was one of the first officials to react to the interview in Le Parisien. "Does the president master what he says? The World Health Organization (WHO) says, "convince rather than coerce". What about him? "To annoy more". Dismaying", he denounced in a tweet.

Le Président maîtrise-t-il ce qu'il dit ?
L'OMS dit « convaincre plutôt que contraindre ». Et lui ? « Emmerder davantage». Consternant.#Macron

— Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@JLMelenchon) January 4, 2022

For Marine Le Pen, presidential candidate of the extreme right Rassemblement National, "a President should not say that. The guarantor of the nation's unity is stubbornly dividing it and assumes that he wants to make non-vaccinated people second-class citizens. Emmanuel Macron is unworthy of his office".

? Cette vulgarité et cette violence du Président de la République prouvent qu'il ne s'est jamais considéré comme le président de tous les Français.

C'est une faute politique mais aussi une faute morale lourde ! #DirectAN pic.twitter.com/Y9i1pYjw0F

— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) January 4, 2022

"President, I will stop annoying the French. The outgoing president openly talks about annoying a category of French people," the other far-right candidate, Éric Zemmour, also immediately tweeted.

Président, j’arrêterai d’emmerder les Français. Le Président sortant, lui, parle ouvertement d’emmerder une catégorie de Français. https://t.co/hXPz2LHIv5

— Eric Zemmour (@ZemmourEric) January 4, 2022