It was both astounding and to be expected: the President of the Republic, in an interview with a French daily, lobbed a grenade at all French citizens, not just the unvaccinated.
It is quite staggering because a sitting president has never gone that far in an official statement, but not unexpected because Macron has been showing signs of mental fog. It seems that the relentless resistance of antivaxxers, fed by the growing mistrust of the double-vaccinated in booster shots, have been vindicated. Vaccine acceptance has fallen from 80 percent for the first two jabs to 35 percent for the third booster shot.
Even those French deputies, who have steadfastly been behind the vaccination campaign, were flabbergasted.
The advantage of the French president declaring that he “really wants to piss off the unvaccinated” to make their lives unbearable, was first of all to wake up the slumbering Yellow Vests, left stunned for two years by the violence of police repression (2018-2019) and then the pandemic: They will be protesting again on January 8.
That both the antivaxxers and the Yellow Vests are angry with the inadmissible remarks of a President in office, is understandable. What is less so, is the panicked reaction of the pro-Macron sycophant Raphael Glucksmann: “Since the beginning of the pandemic, I’ve been avoiding any easy criticism of an extremely difficult health management task. But a President should never speak like that.” Macron’s minions do not appear as confident as before.
Macron’s childish ultimatum reported by le Parisien will have dire consequences… for Macron himself. It has now become possible to insult the President. Until now, there has been a sort of verbal non-aggression pact between the politico-media representatives and the regime. His provocation has however unleashed a flood of invective on French social platforms, even from the most serene public figures.
“How crazy do you have to be to put your masked mug in a thumbnail?”
“How much did Pfizer pay this scumbag?”
“France is presided over by a sociopathic retarded teenager. Now you can’t say you didn’t know.”
“These people [leaders] are increasingly dangerous!”
“Macron and his clique of Playmobils, like all dictators, are wiping their asses with the few crumbs of democracy that might remain in this ravaged country.”
“He has never even spoken like this about terrorists, drug dealers, paedophiles, criminals… It’s disgraceful, he’s gone mad. Disgusting.”
“The policy of loss of citizenship is now fully accepted at the highest level of the state. A major turning point.”
Are the unvaccinated ‘more dangerous than terrorists’?
Republican MP Eric Ciotti, another vaccine pusher, described an organized debate on this issue by the executive as “ridiculous” citing “administrative difficulties” after a massive blowback in the National Assembly as well as on social media. Ciotti is evidently worried about the devastating impact that Macron’s threats could have on vaccine adherents and tried to soften the blow.
He explained on public broadcaster France Inter: “Either it’s a provocation, or it’s amateurism, maybe a bit of both,” The “provocation”, according to him, were the words of Emmanuel Macron who not only wanted to “piss off” the unvaccinated, but also affirmed that the latter, because they were “irresponsible”, were “no longer citizens”.
Denouncing an “electoral strategy” of “rupture and division”, Ciotti recalled that Macron had refused in 2016 “the deprivation of nationality for Islamist terrorists based on the fact that everyone is a citizen”. “Now suddenly, the unvaccinated are more dangerous than terrorists?” he lamented. Ciotti nevertheless confirmed that he would vote for the vaccine pass.
Florian Philippot was not baffled by Macron’s taunts: “Contrary to what we often read, the number of nonvaccinated will not decrease but will only increase, with a drop week after week of French people who refuse new doses.” He added: “Macron’s comments deserve a revolution of 1789 to the power of 10! This guy is crazy!”
Professor Didier Raoult warned in his latest video against this madness: “This crisis reveals temptations that we have already seen in the past. When one is no longer able to distinguish facts from one’s own opinions, then one is in a dangerous business.”
The government wants to impose the vaccine pass without a vote of Parliament. “We’re looking at all this,” a minister told BFMTV recently. Many in the opposition fear that the government will impose Article 49.3 to enforce the vaccine pass.
Article 49 paragraph 3 of the French Constitution allows the government to pass the text of the law without a ballot. “In this case, this project is considered adopted, unless a motion of censure, filed within the next twenty-four hours, is voted under the conditions provided for in the previous paragraph”, explained the government website.