There is growing fury at Emmanuel Macron’s handling of the coronavirus crisis and the vaccine rollout. Leading opposition figure Marine Le Pen, who heads the National Rally, criticised Mr Macron for losing out to the UK on a French-made Covid jab. She suggested that this latest move was France paying the price for handing over control to Brussels.
Ms Le Pen said: “We are above all paying for the abandonment of our sovereignty in favour of other emerging powers in globalisation.”
French citizens speaking to RT also vented their anger at Mr Macron’s handling, where only 2.5 percent of the population has been vaccinated, compared to 15.5 percent in the UK.
One person said: “It is a loss, it is a shame for us. We have missed the mark. We have missed a good chance for us in France.”
Another person told RT: “England is better ,managed because it has been liberated from the European Union and these enormous constraints that constitute the EU.”
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A third person interview said: “It’s sad because France is the country of Pasteur and yet we see a lack of funding, a lack of know-how, while the country and Europe are failing at everything.”
A Brexit political campaigner Charles-Henri Gallois also spoke out: “Basically it says: The European Union it is not the vaccine, it is the virus.
“The idea is to say that the European Union has terribly managed the Covid-19 crisis.
“It has shown they are not only useless but it is toxic for the European countries that are still locked in.”
The jab was developed at the pharmaceutical company’s headquarters near Nantes in the Loire region.
Christelle Morancais, regional council president for the Loire region, said: “What happened in the UK? They rolled out the red carpet for this company.
“They helped with financing, installation. They’ve done everything to make it happened and we haven’t been able to do that. It’s just a waste.”
Mr Macron sparked controversy again this week after refusing to follow scientific advice, which urged France to impose another national lockdown.
Despite rising cases and stalling vaccinations, Prime Minister Jean Castex said the “economic, social and human” costs of another lockdown cannot be justified.