The European Union has only vaccinated 12.9 per 100 people so far, compared to 44.7 in the UK and 37.2 in the US. The slow rollout of vaccines is infuriating citizens across the bloc. National Rally politicians have lashed out against the EU Commission and Emmanuel Macron for their failures.
MEP Thierry Mariani blamed the vaccine supply failures on EU bureaucracy.
He blasted: “The failure of the vaccine supply is the best symptom of Brussels bureaucracy.
“With 27 states, we had to be more efficient in obtaining vaccines, said Macron. False!
“It’s the other way around. Morocco or Serbia prove it to us.”
Echoing his comments, MEP Dominique Bilde said: “After Brexit, the UK was supposed to become a third world country, collapse and never recover, but now they vaccinate 850,000 people in on day while France vaccinates 56,000.”
And MEP Julie Lechanteux defended health workers across the bloc doing everything they can to counter Brussels’ failures.
She said: “The EU vaccine campaign is a total failure!
“In the field, elected officials and local actors do everything they can to organise logistics in the vaccination centres.
“Frejus is the proof.”
The European Commission has vowed the bloc will be able to vaccinate 70 percent of its population by the summer.
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“Gabriel Attal said that by mid-April we would live a normal life and PM Castex promised that 14 million French would be vaccinated in spring, but we are very far away from that number.
“We have vaccinated less than 10 percent of our population with one dose and 3 percent with two doses, while Israel has 60 percent and Chile 29 percent.
“Will we stop with this ideologic blockage that for geopolitical reasons makes us refuse for now the Russian vaccine? Or the Chinese one.
“Obviously, we don’t have right now the capacity to accelerate the vaccination process.
“Many promises have been made, but I fear that the return to normal is very far away.
“I worry not only because people are getting tired of this, but also because our economy will suffer because of this delay.”
Additional reporting by Maria Ortega
