PARIS (LifeSiteNews) — French President Emmanuel Macron told a distressed nurse he will not be lifting the COVID vaccine mandate imposed on French healthcare workers since last summer.
The exchange between the president and the nurse took place Tuesday during one of Macron’s official engagements.
“We have no more work. Help us!” said the woman, whose name has not been published by the French press.
With tears in her eyes, she asked the French president, “why force healthcare workers to get vaccinated?”
“You know very well it doesn’t work,” she argued.
The woman then begged Macron to allow unvaccinated healthcare workers to go back to work.
“How are we supposed to live? Let us go back to work, please,” she asked.
The French president appeared to show little compassion for the nurse, however, and criticized her for filming him while speaking to him.
“First of all, if you want to speak with me, it’s best not to film me – out of politeness – because I was nice enough to come to you,” scolded Macron.
After claiming to understand the woman’s “emotion,” the president stated coldly that, in the near future, the French government “will not be lifting the vaccine mandate.”
After the nurse insisted, saying that she and her colleagues are suffering under the mandate, Macron coldly retorted, “95% of your colleagues have been vaccinated.”
A video of the exchange has been circulating on social media and has already gone viral.
French presidential candidate Florian Philippot, founder of the right-wing party The Patriots, posted the video on his Twitter page earlier today.
Philippot expressed his outrage at Macron’s policy, and lack of empathy, and called his intransigence “inhumane.”
“Speaking to a nurse without a job and in tears, Macron coldly confirms that he will not reinstate suspended [healthcare] workers! That includes 15,000 caregivers! This is inhumane and irresponsible considering the situation in the hospitals,” Philippot tweeted.
Devant une infirmière sans boulot et en pleurs, Macron confirme froidement qu’il ne réintégrera pas les travailleurs suspendus ! Dont 15 000 soignants ! Inhumain et irresponsable vu la situation de l’hôpital.#ReintegrezLesPersonnelsSuspendus vite ! pic.twitter.com/AwKSFoyCvB
— Florian Philippot (@f_philippot) March 16, 2022
Although France lifted a number of COVID restrictions on Tuesday, including mask mandates and vaccine passport requirements, healthcare workers remain subject to mandatory vaccination against COVID-19.
They must be “fully vaccinated” with three doses of the experimental mRNA jab or risk being suspended without pay.
In an interview with the daily Le Parisien in January of this year, Macron said he wanted to “piss off” unvaccinated people “to the very end.”
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