By Layli Foroudi
PARIS (Reuters) – The Comédie Française re-opened its doors months ago after COVID-19 curbs were lifted, but stage manager Florence Passy has yet to see her troupe of actors perform in public since then because she refuses to get vaccinated against the virus.
Founded in 1680 and claiming the title of the world’s oldest active theatre, the Paris venue has been back in business since June.
“I work on a project for …months and then I don’t get to see the final result,” said Passy. “It’s frustrating but I accept it.”
Under government rules to stem coronavirus infections, she needs to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative test to join paying theatre-goers, and soon the option of a test will be taken away. She is also barred from bars and cafes.
Passy, 55, and her children are inoculated against tetanus, polio and yellow fever.
But she says has resisted getting the COVID shot for a range of reasons including mixed messages from the government she does not entirely trust and the role of money in the vaccines’ rollout.
President Emmanuel Macron’s determination to – as he memorably put it this month – “piss off” France’s unvaccinated by making their lives more difficult, has only hardened her resolve.
“I don’t know what came over him,” Passy said. “I shouldn’t be considered a non-citizen because I choose not to do what he says.”
Across western Europe, governments have increasingly resorted to coercion with a mix of mandates, incentives and sanctions to raise vaccination rates.
It has worked in France, where 90% of those eligible for the COVID shot are inoculated.
But rifts between the vaccinated and unvaccinated have deepened as the epidemic drags on. Passy said she now saw her family less because conversation always turned to the same divisive subject: the vaccine.
She joined protests last summer to denounce Macron’s health pass rules, and did the same this month as the government stepped up its campaign.
“It’s good for my morale to see that there are people who think like me,” Passy said of the protests.
More than the change to her routine, she said it was “harassment” from the political class that has most shaken her.
Macron’s blunt language drew criticism from opponents but resonated with many among the vaccinated majority who are impatient for normality to return.
He has lost Passy’s vote, however.
After backing him in 2017, she said that if this spring’s election came down to a choice between Macron and the far-right she would consider abstaining.
“It would be the first time. I have voted in every election since I was 18.”
(Reporting by Layli Foroudi; editing by John Stonestreet)
