Emmanuel Macron did not go dead hand. “I really want to piss off the unvaccinated,” said the head of state to defend the vaccine pass, last Wednesday, in an interview with Parisian. Despite criticism from the opposition, the government has assumed this strategy of cleavage in the face of the five million French people who have not received any dose against the coronavirus. But three months before the first round of the presidential election, this shocking exit is not trivial. In this campaign polluted by the epidemic, the fate of the unvaccinated has become a political debate, and the latter, a mass of voters coveted by the candidates for the supreme election.
“We must encourage, convince, not to banish them from society”
“There is a desire to punish the unvaccinated with this vaccination pass, and to deprive them of their citizenship”, annoys rebellious deputy Eric Coquerel, whose group has scrapped against the bill during its examination in Assembly last week. “In the midst of a health crisis, we create enemies from within, which we try to make almost responsible for the virus. The walkers transform the unvaccinated into antivax, but a study by Inserm shows that 40% of the unvaccinated simply do not have access to the vaccine ”, assures the lieutenant of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. In the opposition, we generally insist on the need to “go to” these people who are still resistant, the Inserm survey cited by the rebellious stressing the distance in access to care, especially among immigrants or isolated elderly people living in rural areas.
“There remains a small part of the French for whom the vaccine poses a problem. We must encourage, convince, not to banish them from society. The State must give itself the means to talk to them, without making it a political and electoral issue like the president does ”, points out Eric Pauget, LR deputy for the Alpes-Maritimes and support of Valérie Pécresse.
“We are against the vaccine inquisition”
At Les Républicains, we criticize the president’s exit on the form. But the position vis-à-vis the unvaccinated is actually not that far removed from that of the government. Valérie Pécresse thus said she was in favor of the vaccine pass – and its presentation to access its meetings – which is not the case throughout the opposition. At LFI, we assume to evoke certain “doubts” related to the vaccine. “As soon as we make a reservation, we are placed in the camp of the conspirators, but this vaccine is not a magic object as the government wants us to believe. It is useful for those at risk, but does not prevent transmission. With these reminders every three months, and the vaccination pass which makes it a discriminatory political object, it will now be difficult to convince, ”blows Eric Coquerel.
Last week, during a heated exchange in the hemicycle, Olivier Véran accused Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the rebels of political recovery on this subject. “Perhaps you are aiming to attract the attention of a part of the protesting population which does not want the vaccine, which does not want the past. And perhaps you are calling on them to join you under your banner “, launched the Minister of Health, also accusing” Madame le Pen, Monsieur Dupont-Aignan and Monsieur Philippot […] to go and flatter those who are afraid ”.
Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour on a ridge line
At the National Rally, we highlight the unity of the country and public freedoms, like Senator Stéphane Ravier,
openly unvaccinated. “Marine Le Pen has always held the same position: freedom of choice, taking into account scientific reality. There are categories of French people who are more at risk from this virus. We are therefore against the vaccine inquisition imposed on us by the guru Emmanuel Macron ”.
But like Eric Zemmour, the RN is walking on a ridge line, because their electorate is divided on these issues. Dénis Cieslik, responsible for sponsorship of the Reconquest party, sees it as a trap set by the Head of State. “Emmanuel Macron wanted to split the debate, it’s a political trap, and we don’t want to get into it. Eric Zemmour speaks to all French people, the vaccinated as well as the non-vaccinated. “