World News: Macron Draws The Line on Vaccination

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Monday, 26 July 2021 13:29

Written by Olivier Longhi

French President Emmanuel Macron, facing an upcoming election, has refused to strike a balance with the ever-growing number of anti-vaxxer's even demanding compliance, in order to curb the continuing escalation of confirmed coronavirus cases within the Republic.

If the multiplication of oppositions to the vaccination obligation does not weaken, it questions the origin of the protesters and their ability to instrumentalize the health crisis. 

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While demonstrations on compulsory vaccination continue in a beaded or open manner, despite parliament's consideration of the Law on the Health Pass, which should specify its contours and application, it is not uninteresting to dwell on the sociology and origin of these opponents. (lemonde.fr)

Venus from different backgrounds, whether they are remobilized Yellow Vests, far-right sympathizers, employees tossed about by the effects of the pandemic, all have one thing in common that can be summed up in a fierce opposition to the President of the Republic.

And those who thought, visibly wrongly, that the coronavirus epidemic, had extinguished the resentments that were already considered old, to be at their expense. Starting with a President of the Republic forced to put on the warm blue again on the move to Papeete (Tahiti) by castigating the irresponsibility and selfishness of those who refuse to be vaccinated.

Democracy and Debate

Because if now more than 40 million French people have received one or two injections and the plea of the tenant of the Elysée, on July 12, who called on each of us to be vaccinated as soon as possible, to bear fruit, it persists in the country, proof if it were necessary that democracy is still working at full capacity, individuals not only opposed to vaccination but to the President of the Republic and his past and current management of the pandemic. (Lepoint.fr:)

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The opportunity making the tear, these opponents come to instrumentalize the health crisis in order to assert their opposition. The tactic is not new and is a matter for political chestnut so many times it has been used, but at least it has the merit of proving that after three waves of contamination, and waiting for the fourth, democratic life, made up of contradictions and opposition, disagreements, and debates, has regained the upper hand. Some will be delighted, but where a question of cornelian essence emerges is whether we can compromise, debate, and oppose on health issues that are a matter of public health?

Is there not a form of denial of the pandemic reality among these opponents in favour of a total opposition that would allow them to clear themselves of the consequences of their actions? It is not a question here of putting forward a clear-cut answer that would be truthful, but of leaving a reasonable place for doubt by asking whether it is still relevant to oppose the decisions expressed by the first elected representative of the nation, in the light of the circumstances?

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Fallacy and Fractures

To argue that individual freedoms have been infringed or that decisions are authoritarian or even dictatorial in nature is an ambitious postulate, which needs to be adamantly supported by concrete elements of a historical and sociological nature, but which is also precarious and dangerous because, bathed in sophistry, it can be accused of deliberately distorting a completely different reality.

The processions of opponents that have formed in this way over the past few days do not ultimately raise the intrinsic question of an adherence or a refusal to the principle of vaccination but highlight social and political divisions that the pandemic had masked without reducing them. These same social divisions that are emerging a few months before the presidential election are obviously most vexing for the majority as well as for the opposition because neither of them knows, or really knows how to reduce them and give satisfaction to those who wear them.

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One reality is imposed, however: behind the anti-vax re-emerges a fringe of the population disconnected from the unifying republican discourse deemed too peremptory without proposing another because the claims, vague and unstructured, hide their weaknesses behind a refusal of mass vaccination, for the moment presented as a welcome common claim.

Bio: Olivier Longhi an opinion columnist for Haute-Lifestyle.com, has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist, recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, a press and publishing consultant, and a communications consultant.