Emmanuel Macron, interviewed on Greek television on Wednesday about vaccines, compared Europe to “a diesel” which “starts slowly” but “goes far”.
On the vaccination campaign against the Covid-19, Europe “is a bit of a diesel” which “starts slowly” but “goes far”, estimated the French President Emmanuel Macron in an interview with Nikos Aliagas broadcast on Wednesday by a television Greek.
“We are catching up. We are a bit of a diesel. We can no longer talk too much in these days about these engines, but it starts slowly and it goes far,” said the head of state, questioned for the ERT channel on the occasion of the bicentenary of Greek independence.
The Americans “had more ambitions than we”
The European Union “has ordered 2.5 billion doses, so plenty to do for us, for solidarity, to plan for the future. By the second half of the year, we will be the space that will produce the most vaccines. to the world “, he adds, questioned by the popular Franco-Greek host in the village hall of the Elysee.
Asked about the sluggish start of the vaccination campaign, Emmanuel Macron admits not having “thought it would go so quickly”. “The Americans had a merit in the summer of 2020, they said: ‘we put the package and we go’. And so they have more (vaccines). They had more ambition than us. whatever the cost that one applied for the accompanying measures, they applied it for vaccines and research “, according to him.
“We weren’t quick enough, strong enough on this. It’s quite true and we thought that the vaccine would take time to take off (…) And so, we probably have less dreamed of the stars than some others. And I think that must be a lesson for ourselves. We were wrong to lack ambition, I was going to say madness, to say: ‘it is possible and we are going ‘. We are perhaps too rational, “he said.
Macron defends the European approach
Emmanuel Macron also defends the importance of “having a real European vaccination” and “clear rules so that within the European area we can reopen” by the summer with the establishment of a health certificate, currently under discussion at EU level.
Due to the health crisis, Emmanuel Macron canceled his participation in the ceremonies scheduled for Thursday in Athens on the bicentenary of the independence of Greece, with which France shares “the attachment to freedom and to the European adventure”, according to him.
Three and a half years after his speech on Europe delivered on the Pnyx hill in Athens, the head of state indicates that he will formulate “proposals” on the future of Europe “in the second half of the year with a view to of the French Presidency “of the EU in the first half of 2022.
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