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French President Emmanuel Macron Sparks Outrage For Suggesting The Unvaccinated Are ‘No Longer’ Citizens

(Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images)

Brianna Lyman News and Commentary Writer
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French President Emmanuel Macron came under fire Wednesday after he suggested the unvaccinated are “no longer” citizens.

“The unvaccinated, I really want to annoy them,” Macron said in a Tuesday interview with newspaper Le Parisien, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Macron reportedly used the phrase emmerder, which is a vulgar term for “piss off.”

“They undermine the solidity of a nation. When my freedom threatens that of others, I become irresponsible. An irresponsible person is no longer a citizen.”

Macron’s comments came as French lawmakers debated legislation sought by Macron’s administration that would require individuals be fully vaccinated in order to enter restaurants, gyms and other arenas while taking away the option for unvaccinated people to provide proof of a negative test taken within 24 hours, according to the report.

“I won’t send [unvaccinated people] to prison,” Macron said during his interview regarding France’s roughly five million unvaccinated residents, according to BBC. “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.”

“These statements by the president of the Republic are undignified, irresponsible, contemptuous,” Damien Abad, leader of France’s main conservative Party — Les Republicains, said, according to the WSJ. “We can’t work in these conditions.” (RELATED: Bogdanoff Twins Die Of COVID Only Six Days Apart)

Leader of the National Rally Party Marine Le Pen, who is running against Macron in the upcoming election, said Macron’s “insults … will never change.”

Left-leaning politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon said Macron’s comments made it “clear” that “the vaccination pass is a collective punishment against individual freedom,” the BBC reported.

More than 90% of the nation’s adult population has received two doses of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the BBC. Meanwhile, more than 77% of the entire nation is fully vaccinated, according to CBS News.