A crappy choice of words? Macron under fire for his warning to France’s unvaccinated

French President Emmanuel Macron has provoked outcries in Parliament and from election rivals by using a vulgarity to describe his strategy for pressuring holdouts to get their COVID-19 vaccinations. Macron used the French word “emmerder,” rooted in the French word for “crap” and meaning “to rile” or “to bug,” in an interview published by French newspaper Le Parisien on Tuesday night. Opposition lawmakers protested in the National Assembly chamber as Macron’s health minister, Olivier Veran, sought to defend the president’s choice of words. Veran said Macron’s interview demonstrated his “intention, above all, to protect the population.” Critics accused Macron of behavior unbecoming a president and of targeting the unvaccinated to win support from the 90% of French adults who are fully vaccinated. Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who opposed the vaccine pass proposal, said the president wants “to wage war against a portion of the French.” Another far-right candidate, Eric Zemmour, accused Macron of “cruelty.” On the far left, presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon asked: “Is the president in control of what he says?” Macron’s supporters suggested the president simply expressed out loud what some vaccinated people already think about the unvaccinated in a country with bitter divides over the issue.