With only half of French people fully vaccinated, Macron made a bold statement that he says may “piss off” the unvaccinated but frankly, he doesn’t care. And that’s the way he wants it. “I really want to piss them off,” he told the Le Parisien newspaper in an interview.
“I am not about pissing off the French people. 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,” he told the paper.
“How do we reduce that minority? We reduce it – sorry for the expression – by pissing them off even more.” His administration is “putting pressure on the unvaccinated by limiting, as much as possible, their access to activities in social life.”
He added, “I won’t send unvaccinated people to prison. So, we need to tell them, from 15 January, you will no longer be able to go to the restaurant. You will no longer be able to go for a coffee, you will no longer be able to go to the theatre. You will no longer be able to go to the cinema.”
If this seems too bold, he’s not the only European leader who feels this way. Mandatory vaccinations are being introduced in several European countries, with Austria requiring vaccines for over-14s starting next month to Germany planning to do the same for adults.
The same day as Macron’s statement, Italy announced that it is making vaccinations mandatory for anyone over the age of 50 starting on Feb. 15.
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