In the midst of a heated debate in the Assembly on the future vaccination pass, it is with this raw word that he assumed his desire to establish "almost an obligation to vaccinate".

A vocabulary which, unsurprisingly, immediately unleashed his opponents.

"The unvaccinated, I really want to piss them off. And so we will continue to do it, until the end. That's the strategy," said the head of state bluntly.

"Almost all of the people, more than 90%, have adhered" to the vaccination and "it is a very small minority that is resistant", he adds.

"That one, how do we reduce it? We reduce it, sorry to say it, like that, by pissing him off even more. Me, I'm not for pissing off the French. I plague all day against the administration when it blocks them. Well there, the unvaccinated, I really want to piss them off, "he continues.

"I am not going to put them in prison, I am not going to forcibly vaccinate them. And so, we must tell them: from January 15, you will no longer be able to go to the restaurant, you will no longer be able to take a cannon, you You will no longer be able to go for a coffee, you will no longer be able to go to the theater, you will no longer be able to go to the movies… ", explains the Head of State.

A patient is tested for Covid-19, in Paris, December 23, 2021 STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP / Archives

For him, "the immense moral fault of antivax" is to "undermine what is the solidity of a nation".

"When my freedom threatens that of others, I become irresponsible. An irresponsible person is no longer a citizen," he said.

His statements come at a time when the deputies had agreed to push back the age of the vaccination pass from 12 to 16 years in order to appease an electric atmosphere in the Assembly, after the surprise suspension of debates the previous night.

The rebellious Jean-Luc Mélenchon was one of the first to react.

"Does the President have control over what he says? WHO says' convince rather than coerce '. And him?' Piss off more.

Appalling ", he denounces in a tweet.

Jean Castex during a questioning session to the government at the National Assembly, in Paris on January 4, 2022 Christophe ARCHAMBAULT AFP

For Marine Le Pen, the candidate of the RN, "a President should not say that. The guarantor of the unity of the nation persists in dividing it and assumes wanting to make the unvaccinated second-class citizens. Emmanuel Macron is unworthy of his office ".

Proud of the European Flag

Cash on the vaccine, it is with caution that Emmanuel Macron evokes his probable candidacy in 2022. "I want. As soon as there are the sanitary conditions which allow it and that I have clarified this subject, in me - even and in relation to the political equation, I will say what it is, "he assured.

On the other hand, he found an attacking posture to intervene - belatedly - in the other controversy of the beginning of the year: the installation of the EU flag under the Arc de Triomphe on December 31, attacked in chorus by Valérie Pécresse, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour.

The European flag, on January 1, 2022, under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, to celebrate the start of the French presidency of the EU.

Alain JOCARD AFP / Archives

"The European flag, I am proud of it, it is a symbol of peace", he said, "this reaction was disproportionate and unwelcome".

However, he justified himself by explaining that the EU flag had been placed under the monument at a time when "there was nothing".

Emmanuel Macron also responded to the taxation of inheritance, the reduction of which is defended by Valérie Pécresse, pleading to "help pass on modest assets".

He also recognized, without details, the need to increase the salaries of caregivers and teachers but also "rethink" their functions.

And recognized a failure: not having succeeded in eliminating glyphosate in three years, as he had initially committed to.

Emmanuel Macron also welcomes "that there are women candidates" but believes "to have been more feminist, five years ago, than many female candidates".

Accused by Valérie Pécresse of having "crushed the fund", he finally defends the "whatever the cost", which represents "15% of the GDP" while, without him, "the cost on the whole of the economy would have risen to 45% of the GDP ".

"This debt will have to be paid. But with activity. Me, as long as I am in office, there will be no increase in taxes," he assures us.

© 2022 AFP