French politician is pelted with soil by anti-vaxxers after Macron said he would ‘p*** off’ unjabbed

A French politician was pelted with soil by anti-health pass protesters outside his home on Sunday. 

Footage showed Stephane Claireaux, a member of the ruling La République en Marche (LREM) party, being bombarded with mud, stones and seaweed in the overseas territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean. 

It comes days after President Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to ‘p*** off’ unvaccinated people by making their lives so complicated they would end up getting the jab.

Among the proposed measures is a new health pass that makes proof of vaccination mandatory for people to enter enclosed public spaces.

The legislation which could come into force as early as January 17, will remove the option of showing a negative test, effectively barring unvaccinated people from enclosed public spaces.  

Claireaux said he would file a legal complaint over the attack and revealed he had received ‘death threats by mail’ in comments on Monday. 

On Monday, Claireaux told France Info: ‘I am obviously going to launch a legal complaint. Some people think the right decisions are not being made. 

‘We are all receiving death threats by mail, at some moment this has to stop.’

French Minister of Overseas Annick Girardin condemned the attack on Claireaux.  

‘The attack on Stephane Claireaux outside his own house during a demonstration against the health pass is totally unacceptable. The images are extremely shocking,’ said Girardin. 

Minister for France’s overseas territories Sébastien Lecornu described the attack as a ‘lynching in front of his family home’.

He added he and Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had ‘instructed the prefect of Saint Pierre and Miquelon to ensure the protection of the deputy’.

Head of Macron’s party’s group in the national assembly Christophe Castaner said MPs last year received a total of 332 death threats and the many had been attacked, describing assaulted on cars, garages and other property, as well as graffiti.

President Macron, 44, last week vowed to ‘pi** off’ the unvaccinated while responding to a nurse during a question and answer session with readers of Le Parisien on how the government will handle people who have not had the jab.  

‘By – and I’m sorry for putting it this way – by p***ing them off even more,’ Macron said. 

‘I’m generally opposed to the French being p****d off. I complain all the time about administrative blockages. 

‘But when it comes to the non-vaccinated, I’m very keen to pi** them off. So we’re going to do it, the end. That’s our strategy.’   

Macron also called unvaccinated people irresponsible and – in another remark criticised by some voters and the opposition, that ‘irresponsible people are no longer citizens’. 

People have for several months had to show either proof of vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test to enter venues such as cinemas and cafes and use trains. 

But with Delta and Omicron variant infections surging, the government decided to drop the test option in the new bill.

Plans for a new vaccine pass have faced fierce resistance from anti-vaccination campaigners and far-right and far-left groups, but is backed by the government which has a majority in parliament. 

France has historically had more vaccine sceptics than many of its neighbours, and pandemic restrictions have triggered many street protests.

But nearly 90 per cent of those aged 12 have now been inoculated, one of the continent’s highest Covid-19 vaccination rates.