Friday, March 29

Macron’s reprimand of unvaccinated citizens sparks anger in parliament | Emmanuel macron


Emmanuel Macron faced criticism from political opponents and heated scenes in parliament on Wednesday after he gave a deliberately provocative warning to the unvaccinated French, saying that he would make their lives as difficult as possible by restricting their access to spaces such as cafes and restaurants.

A crucial parliamentary debate on introducing a proposed Covid-19 “vaccine pass” to enter areas like museums and long-distance trains is set to resume Wednesday afternoon.

The debate had been suspended shortly before 2 a.m. on Wednesday when lawmakers expressed outrage at the interview with Macron’s newspaper in which he said that the five million people who had not been vaccinated against the coronavirus were “irresponsible. “and that he” really wanted to “shit” by making his daily life as complicated as possible.

French government spokesman Gabriel Attal warned that there would be a “supersonic” rise in Covid cases in France in the coming days and that infections were reaching stratospheric levels in the Ile-de-France area around Paris, as well as in some other regions. .

He said the situation in hospitals could get worse in the coming weeks. France recorded a record rate of nearly 300,000 Covid infections on Tuesday.

The government, in a tightening of current rules, is trying to make it mandatory for people to show proof of Covid-19 vaccination to enter cafes, restaurants, museums, cinemas and theaters, or to use long-distance trains. Repeated riots and clashes in parliament, as well as hundreds of proposed amendments, are leaving the government scrambling to get the law passed before the January 15 deadline.

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In an interview with readers of The parisian The newspaper published on Wednesday, Macron, the French president, deliberately used the verb “emmerder”, which is derived from the word “merde” or “shit” and is widely used in France and is considered vulgar slang. He said he “really wanted” to put the unvaccinated “in shit” making their lives very complicated and “limiting their access to social life activities as much as possible.”

Macron said: “We have to say [the unvaccinated] … you will no longer be able to go to a restaurant, you will no longer be able to go to have a coffee, you will no longer be able to go to the theater, you will no longer be able to go to the movies. We will continue to do this, until the end. This is the strategy. ”He explained that he could not force the French to get vaccinated under penalty of prison or fines, but that life could be very difficult for them without a vaccine.

In parliament, opposition parties criticized Macron’s choice of language as inappropriate for a president and concerning in terms of voting through the new law.

Christian Jacob, president of the opposition, the right-wing Les Républicains party, told parliament: “A president cannot say those things … I am in favor of the vaccine pass but I cannot support a text whose objective is to put the French in the shit. “

Damien Abad, from the same party, criticized what he described as unworthy, irresponsible and premeditated statements that showed “childish cynicism”.

On the left, there was outrage at more comments from Macron, when, referring to unvaccinated people, he said that when the freedom of some people threatened that of others they became irresponsible, adding: “Someone irresponsible is not a citizen.”

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Mathilde Panot, head of the parliamentary group of the left-wing party La France Insoumise, told the chamber: “We will not continue to debate a text that you presented as a protection of the French people and that in fact is a text to put part of the French population in the shit and what have you invented [the notion of] strip French citizenship, saying that irresponsible people are no longer French citizens. “

Macron is expected to seek re-election in the April presidential elections. However, his main rival, Valérie Pécresse of Les Républicains, told French television that he was dividing the nation by making some citizens appear better than others.

“It is not up to the president of the republic to choose the good and bad French,” Pécresse said. France needed a government to “bring people together and calm things down,” he added.

But government figures and Macron’s allies supported the president’s calculated choice of words and the strategy to make daily life very difficult for the unvaccinated.

Macron is no stranger to discussions of offhand comments or jargon, telling interviewers last month that he regretted some of his comments from the past five years, saying “I’ve learned to have a lot more respect for everyone.”

But the vehemence of his comments about unvaccinated people and his deliberate choice of harsh language was directed at his own constituency, which is almost entirely vaccinated, and was also a pre-election message to address the widespread exasperation over the Covid crisis. in France.

Although France has historically had more vaccine skeptics than many of its neighbors, it has one of the highest Covid-19 vaccination rates in the EU. Most people are in favor of vaccination; approximately 90% of French people aged 12 and over are vaccinated.

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The number of unvaccinated people in critical wards of French hospitals is higher than those vaccinated, and the Health Minister has said that the small minority of unvaccinated people in France, which is around five million, is too much.

Christophe Castaner, a key Macron ally and head of his grouping in parliament, said: “The president’s comments provided clarity, and we need him at this difficult time for the country.” Castaner said the president was giving an opinion shared by many French people.

Olivier Véran, the health minister, told parliament that the aim of the entire Macron interview was “the protection of the French people.”

Marc Fesneau, minister for parliamentary relations, said: “We need the unvaccinated people to listen to the message that the government, the parliament and the president send them, which is a message of responsibility.”


www.theguardian.com

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