Once hailed the future of the Fifth Republic for he promised to reform France\u2019s stalling economy and reclaim some of the nation\u2019s long lost \u2018shine\u2019, French President Emmanuel Macron is now being compared to the notorious Marechal Petain \u2013 the man who sold France to the Nazis back in the late 1930s. Some protesters to his new \u2018pandemic rules\u2019 have gone as far as to compare him to Adolf Hitler himself, a clear sign of the President\u2019s fall from grace. A dark chapter in France\u2019s history, WW2 still rings with shame and disgrace across the nation.<\/p>\n
A much hated figure of France\u2019s history books for he relinquished much of the Republic\u2019s territory to the German despite his former military prowess in Verdun during the First World War, the Marechal shamed the nation by volunteering its Jewish population to the slaughter in exchange for political favours. Rather than fight the German invaders, Petain not only chose to kneel to Berlin, he also relinquished France\u2019s republican values to fascism \u2013 forever associating his name to the horrors of nazism.<\/p>\n
If France has always had a taste for a strong Executive \u2013 at times flirting with despotism in the name of political efficiency, fascism is profoundly contrary to France\u2019s historical socio-political narrative. For President Macron to have his name slapped next to those of Petain and Hitler signals a deep crisis; one which runs far deeper than a simple political dispute. France \u2018s very republican institutions and one could argue its very national integrity stand in the balance.<\/p>\n
Battered by 18 months of imposed isolation and unprecedented restrictions on basic civil liberties \u2013 such as that of free movement, freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate, the French no longer trust the man they not too long ago entrusted with their collective future. The new enemy of the Republic \u2026 in France where it is the people who are the depositary of \u2018power\u2019, Macron is a tyrant who overstepped the bounds of the tolerable.<\/p>\n
In truth France has endured too many health scandals over the decades for anyone to be complacent. According to a recent survey by the Odoxa polling group and Le Figaro newspaper, 58 percent of the French population are sceptical of getting the COVID-19 vaccine, compared with 33 percent of people in the UK and 41 percent in the US.<\/p>\n
Bruised by a health scandal which hit in the 1990s and involved government officials, the French have indeed genuine questions. In 1991, the government was found to have knowingly administered transfusions with contaminated blood from people who were HIV positive to at least 1,200 haemophiliacs, which led to hundreds of deaths.<\/p>\n
French government officials had initially said they were not aware the blood was contaminated. Three ministers, including former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, were charged with manslaughter. Only one was found guilty and received no sentence.<\/p>\n
Ever since, the public has met the government\u2019s claims on public health with much skepticism \u2026 understandably so!<\/p>\n
Determined \u2026 or so he claims to manage the new covid variant Macron announced earlier this July that he aimed to achieve a 100% vaccination rate by year\u2019s end \u2013 a goal which not only implies forced vaccination but provision for systemic discrimination.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we do not act today, the number of cases will continue to increase,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Vaccination will become mandatory for all health workers. Macron urged them to be inoculated by September 15, after which they could face potential sanctions or fines. Vaccination is a \u201cmatter of individual responsibility \u2026 but also a matter of our freedom\u201d, the president added.<\/p>\n
France\u2019s President wishes not to advise but to order all to comply, obey and bow to the will of his Office in complete contradiction to the principles which underpins it.<\/p>\n
In true French fashion and in a move which has cut across political demographics, protesters took to the streets of cities throughout the country, united in their rejection of what they perceive as an existential crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not arguing the vaccine, we are arguing our right to choose and the government\u2019s constitutional duty NOT to discriminate against its own people on account of the pandemic,\u201d<\/em> said Laurence, a protester in Toulouse.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In Paris, one demonstrator\u2019s blouse read \u201cNo to compulsory vaccination, freedom violated!\u201d, while another\u2019s placard said: \u201cMacron, no to the health dictatorship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dangling the proverbial financial carrott, Macron is promising that the road to recovery runs through a vaccination centre. And while many will be those who choose to get inoculated, true freedom requires that we accept those who will choose to abstain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis summer will be a summer of economic recovery,\u201d Macron stated in his address,, adding that the \u2018health passport\u2019 \u2013 a QR code or certificate proving that the holder has a negative Covid-19 test, is fully vaccinated or recently recovered from Covid-19 \u2013 will be required throughout different establishments in France from August, including bars, restaurants, caf\u00e9s and shopping centres.<\/p>\n
French government spokesman Gabriel Attal lamented the \u201cabsolutely abject comparisons\u201d of vaccine rules to Nazi atrocities, urging other political leaders to speak out.<\/p>\n
Attal later stressed the need for vaccinations despite some increasingly radical pockets of resistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in a fourth wave,\u201d he said after a Cabinet meeting earlier this week, just before a bill goes to parliament to make vaccination passes to access public spaces, including restaurants, obligatory. \u201cWe won\u2019t cede to a dictatorship of images and outrageous words,\u201d the government spokesman added in reference to the anti-vaccination protesters.<\/p>\n
If it is unlikely protesters will force a reversal, today Covid has become the new rationale of despotism, it is rather clear however that France\u2019s malaise towards the \u2018new normal\u2019 will ultimately shape the future of the Republic.<\/p>\n
If for every action one should expect equal reaction, Macron may soon find that the violence his government is raining on its citizens in the name of public safety could soon meet its match by way of a resistance movement.<\/p>\n