In an interview with Le Parisien, Mr Macron claimed he wanted to make life for the unvaccinated as difficult as possible. Using the French word, “emmerder”, he said: “The unvaccinated, I really want to p*** them off.
“And so, we’re going to continue doing so, until the end.
“That’s the strategy.”
Although he insisted he would not send the unvaccinated to prison, he effectively claimed he wanted to bar them from normal life.
He added: “I won’t send the unvaccinated to prison, I won’t vaccinate by force.
“So we need to tell them, from January 15, you won’t be able to go to the restaurant anymore, you won’t be able to down one, won’t be able to have a coffee, go to the theatre, the cinema.”
Now, according to an Elabe poll ‘Opinion 2022’ for BFM TV / L’Express in partnership with SFR, 53 percent of French people were shocked by these remarks.
This included 35 percent of people who were very shocked and 18 percent who were quite shocked.
On the other hand, 47 percent were not shocked, including 25 percent not really and 22 percent not at all.
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Nearly nine out of ten non-vaccinated people were shocked, including seven out of ten who were very shocked.
However, those who vote for Mr Macron were not shocked by his comments, while those who would vote for far-right rival Marine le Pen were mostly shocked.
Ms Le Pen, who is seen as one of the President’s main challengers, hit back at his comments and suggested Mr Macron wants to make “non-vaccinated people second-class citizens”.
She said: “A President should not say that. “The guarantor of the unity of the nation persists in dividing it and assumes that he wants to make non-vaccinated people second-class citizens.
“In April, I will be the President of all the French people.”
As of January 4, 91 percent of people have been fully vaccinated in France, the French government states.
According to figures from Our World in Data, 271,746 new cases were confirmed in France, on January 4.
Due to this, the French government wants to pass a law to introduce mandatory vaccinations for public venues and transport.
This would remove the current measure which allows the public to show a negative test result.
Despite the high case rate, Mr Macron is still the frontrunner for the election in April with 25 percent approval ratings.