French President Emmanuel Macron.
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LONDON – France is currently far behind other European countries with its Covid-19 vaccination, which could jeopardize the chances of re-election of President Emmanuel Macron.
As of Friday, 80,000 French citizens have been vaccinated against the coronavirus. For comparison: neighboring Germany has done hundreds of thousands of vaccinations.
The success or failure in vaccinating the population is likely to form the political debate as the campaign for the 2022 presidential race will heat up in the coming months.
“Although the 2022 presidential election still looks far-fetched, President Macron is certainly concerned that a poorly executed vaccine will now jeopardize his chances of winning a further term,” Jessica Hinds, a European economist at Capital Economics, said Thursday. told CNBC. .
Macron stood head-to-head with far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a poll published in October.
The French president reportedly complained that the rate of vaccinations “is not worthy of the moment or the French people” and said the situation “should change quickly and noticeably,” Le Journal du Dimanche reported earlier this month. The presidential office was not immediately available for comment when CNBC contacted him on Monday.
“A slow vaccination rate would limit the government’s ability to lift restrictions that the economy and the daily lives of people require. This is clearly unpopular among (French) voters, especially if other countries like Germany can remove it sooner,” he said. said Hinds.
Red tape was the main reason for the delays. Residents had to get a consultation and get permission from their doctor before vaccination.
“What I find striking about the French strategy is that public officials did not pay much attention to the logistical attention,” Jeremy Ghez, professor at the HEC Paris Business School, told CNBC in an email.
Reports from the country also indicate that there is a high anti-vaccine sentiment in the entire population, compared to other countries.
The French Minister of Health, Olivier Veran, initially suggested that care about the vaccine be carefully distributed among the general population. An Ipsos poll published in late December showed that only 40% of French people were planning to get the coronavirus vaccine.
But the French government now wants to reverse the situation by simplifying the process. France’s Veran said people aged 75 and over could make an appointment on the internet or by phone to be vaccinated.
The country is also expanding the eligibility criteria and the government has promised that 1 million people will be vaccinated before the end of the month.
France was one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic. The prime minister, Jean Castex, said on Thursday that restaurants and ski resorts would remain closed until at least mid-February and the night clock would be extended until the end of January.
The social constraints demand the economy. France’s GDP is expected to have shrunk by more than 9% by 2020.
The slower the vaccination of vaccines, the longer the economy will remain closed.
“The French economy is under anesthesia and it is only when you pull the fiscal plug that you will really know how fast economic actors can bounce back. If it happens fast, I like Macron’s chances because there are so few alternatives today. “I would argue that all bets are off,” Ghez said of how economic performance would affect the presidential vote.
Macron defeated Le Pen on a pro-EU agenda in 2017.