Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, remarked on Tuesday, 4 January, that he wanted to "piss-off" the unvaccinated with new restrictions on social interactions, Reuters reported.
The French government in 2021 imposed rules that required a PCR test or proof of vaccination to enter hospitality venues, and now wants to issue a vaccine passport, that is, only the fully vaccinated can access bars and restaurants among other places.
Talking to a newspaper called Le Parisien, Macron said that pissing-off the non-vaccinated was a strategy his government would pursue till the end.
"The unvaccinated, I really want to piss them off. And so, we're going to continue doing so, until the end. That's the strategy," Macron mentioned in the interview released on Tuesday.
The comment comes just about four months before the French presidential election, and invited quite a lot of condemnation from his political rivals.
Marine Le Pen, the leader of a far-right party called the National Rally tweeted that "a president shouldn't say that. Emmanuel Macron is unworthy of his office."
Leader of The Republicans in the French Senate, Bruno Retailleau, said that "no health emergency justifies such words," as quoted by AFP.
"Emmanuel Macron says he has learned to love the French, but it seems he especially likes to despise them," he added.
The French government had ordered the closing of nightclubs last year in December amid surging COVID case, but refrained from imposing any more regulations over the holiday season.
The new year has been accompanies by new rules, such as a mask mandate on children who are more than six years old in indoor spaces.
Hospitality venues like bars and restaurants can only serve people who are sitting down.
Mass gatherings indoors are restricted to 2,000 people while not more than 5,000 people are allowed to gather outdoors.
The vaccination rates of France is the highest in the European Union.
Around nine in every 10 adults have already been jabbed.
(With inputs from Reuters and AFP)
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