Macron sparks backlash after warning France's unvaccinated

Macron said he wanted to make life difficult for unvaccinated people

Macron said he wanted to make life difficult for unvaccinated people

President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday faced anger from opponents and chaos in parliament after warning French people not yet vaccinated against Covid-19 that they would be squeezed out of key aspects of life.

Macron, who has not yet formally declared his candidacy for re-election in April, came under fire from challengers already in the race, accusing him of overstepping the line with his remarks.

"As for the non-vaccinated, I really want to piss them off," he told Le Parisien newspaper in an interview, using the French verb "emmerder".

This would mean "limiting as much as possible their access to activities in social life," he added.

"If your freedom threatens others' freedom, you become irresponsible. And irresponsible people are no longer citizens," Macron added.

- Pique in parliament -

But that still leaves millions of people not covered as the Omicron wave breaks over the country.

Parliamentary debate over the tightening was already acrimonious, with the opposition forcing a delay in debate over the draft law late Monday.

The party chief of the right-wing Republicans (LR) Christian Jacob said the group "refused to endorse a text which aims to piss off the French".

- Gaffe or strategy? -

"It's not up to the president of the Republic to pick out good and bad French people," Republicans candidate Valerie Pecresse, seen by many as Macron's most credible challenger, told broadcaster CNews.

Macron "has never felt himself to be president of all French people," far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen charged. Far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon called the vaccine pass plan "collective punishment against individual freedom".

A graduate of France's most elite schools and a former investment banker with little experience of politics before sweeping to power in 2017, Macron was accused of talking down to voters in the early years of his presidency and faced a months-long backlash from "yellow vest" protesters.

"If it's a strategy, it's quite a troubling one".

"The president doesn't want fully vaccinated people to be subject to restrictions because eight to 10 percent of the population refuses," he said.

bur-tgb/sjw/yad

...