French president Emmanuel Macron reveals his government’s vaccination strategy is to “piss off” people who have not had coronavirus jabs by continuing to make daily life more and more difficult for them.
“I am not about pissing off the French people,” Macron said in an interview with readers of Le Parisien daily 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.”
Macron’s statements came as the French parliament debated new legislation that, if passed, will mean only the fully vaccinated – and no longer those with a negative Covid test – will qualify for the country’s health pass from next month.
The pass, introduced this summer, is required in France for access to indoor public places such as cafes, restaurants, cinemas, museums, concert venues and sports centres, as well as to board long-distance trains and planes.
“In a democracy, the worst enemies are lies and stupidity,” the president said. “We are putting pressure on the unvaccinated by limiting, as much as possible, their access to activities in social life.”
France has already vaccinated almost 90% of its population who are eligible, Macron said, and it was “only a very small minority who are resisting. How do we reduce that minority? We reduce it – sorry for the expression – by pissing them off even more.”