Macron: Our aim is to annoy the unvaccinated

FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron has provoked an outcry in parliament after using a swear word to describe his strategy for pressuring the unvaccinated to get coronavirus jabs.

Mr Macron used the French word "emmerder" - rooted in the French word for "c**p” and meaning to rile or to bug - in an interview published by Le Parisien, Parisien, as parliament debated new measures that will allow only the vaccinated to enjoy leisure activities such as eating out.

"The unvaccinated, I really want to bug them. And so we will continue doing so, to the end. That's the strategy," Le Parisien quoted the French leader as saying in an interview at the presidential Elysee Palace with a panel of its readers.

The explosive use of earthy language more commonly heard at the counter of French cafes further complicated the already difficult passage in parliament of the government's planned new vaccine pass.