Emmanuel Macron: "The unvaccinated, I really want to piss them off"

French President Emmanuel Macron, December 15, 2021 in Brussels.

AP - Johanna Geron

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

In an exchange with readers of the daily

Le Parisien

, the French president bluntly attacked the millions of people who have chosen not to be vaccinated against Covid-19 with the vaccines made available in the country.

Emmanuel Macron also focused on Europe, nuclear power or secularism, not to mention the presidential election, for which he has not yet declared himself a candidate.

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“ 

Me, I'm not for pissing off the French.

I plague the administration all day long when it blocks them.

Well there, the unvaccinated, I really want to piss them off.

So we will continue to do it, until the end, that's the strategy. 

"

Comment signed Emmanuel Macron, and reported

on 

the site of Le

 Parisien

this

Tuesday evening.

The Head of State intends to limit “ 

for them, as much as possible, access to social life activities

 ”.

When asked by a reader of the newspaper, who pointed out that the unvaccinated " 

occupy 85% of resuscitations

 ", the French president considered that this remark was " 

the best argument

 " for the government's strategy.

Isabelle Berrier, reader of @le_Parisien and nurse manager aged 54 in Vaucluse, did she suspect this morning the noise that Emmanuel Macron's responses to two of his arrests would make?

https://t.co/Efz5aIkExE pic.twitter.com/w2WNQfZ1iJ

- Nicolas Berrod (@nicolasberrod) January 4, 2022

Almost all of the people, more than 90%, have adhered

 " to this vaccination in the eyes of Emmanuel Macron, for whom all those vaccinated have therefore accepted it wholeheartedly.

And it is according to him “ 

a very small minority which is refractory.

This one, how do you reduce it?

We reduce it, sorry to say it, like that, by pissing it off even more.

 "

“ 

I'm not going to put them in jail, I'm not going to forcibly vaccinate them.

And so, you have to 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 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 take a cannon. no longer going to the movies…

 ”, assumes the Head of State.

Regarding more specifically those he calls the "antivax", Mr. Macron is scathing: " 

The immense moral fault of the antivax: they come 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 says.

►Read also: The attribution of the Legion of Honor to Buzyn goes badly with the opposition

On other themes, the president will have looked for more consensual words. He admitted for example " 

not having succeeded

 " on glyphosate, admitting to having made " 

the error 

", at the start of the five-year term, of having believed France capable of getting out of this weedkiller, alone, without the other countries of the country. 'European Union.

Still on the subject of the EU, of which France took

the presidency

on January 1, Emmanuel Macron also returned to the

controversy

sparked by the deployment of the Union flag under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

The European flag, I am proud of it, it is a symbol of peace

 ", he said, estimating that the criticisms coming from the right were "

 disproportionate and unwelcome

 ".

The question of Macron's participation in the presidential election

I want 

", it is with these words that Emmanuel Macron takes one more step towards entering the campaign, in

Le Parisien

, explaining that in this matter, there was no " 

false suspense

 " , but by postponing the formal announcement of his candidacy when the peak of the epidemic has passed and the time for “personal choices” will have come.

Sooner rather than later

 ," he adds anyway, as a sign of his impatience to enter the electoral fight.

And already, he evokes his ambitions as an outline of a project: "to 

restore 

" the strength of the nation, and to face the ecological, educational, health challenges ... He makes some promises, in particular that of not increasing taxes as long as 'he will be in office.

Valérie Gas, head of the political service of RFI

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  • Emmanuel Macron

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