The expression has toured the planet. It is now used to justify the differences in the health strategies of our neighbors. In an interview published this Saturday by the newspaper Le Soir, the Belgian Prime Minister said he wanted to “annoy the virus and not annoy people”, unlike Emmanuel Macron.
Alexander De Croo thus disagrees – on form and substance – with the controversial remarks of Emmanuel Macron. Wednesday, December 5, the French president had explained to the readers of the Parisian wanting to “piss off the unvaccinated”, “until the end”.
“Clearly, this is not my vocabulary”, argued the Belgian leader, questioned about the statements of the tenant of the Elysee. Alexander De Croo warned against “a policy of division which would consist in going to annoy part of the population”. “I think for my part that we must annoy the virus and not annoy people,” he continued, while acknowledging that, “to annoy the virus, you need as many people as possible to be vaccinated”.
To convince or to oblige?
“It is better to convince than to force”, added the Flemish liberal leader, thus resuming the old French position, the government has long defended the encouragement rather than the constraint, in all its forms.
For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron said this Friday “fully assume” his remarks made in an interview with the Parisian on Tuesday, criticizing the unvaccinated who “make their freedom, which becomes irresponsibility, a slogan”.
Asked about the possibility for Belgium to transform its health pass into a vaccination pass as in France, the Belgian Prime Minister, at the head of a coalition of seven parties, replied that this solution had to be “analyzed”.
VIDEO. “Pissing off the unvaccinated”: Macron says he “fully” assumes his controversial words
“But, whatever the decision taken, it seems very important to me to add that the Covid Safe Ticket (Belgian health pass) is and must remain an exceptional, temporary tool, ”he said, thus attempting to combine vaccine incentive and relative lack of constraint.
“The forecasts are still complicated but as public authorities, we must prepare for the fact that the coronavirus epidemic could last another two or three years”, he also estimated.