Mexican president slams Europe’s ‘excessive’ anti-coronavirus measures

Andrés Manuel López Obrador says ‘we do not need to exaggerate with authoritarian measures like curfews.’

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador defended his approach to tackling coronavirus as he slammed Europe’s — and especially France’s — “excessive measures.”

Speaking at a press conference Monday, the leftist president refused to bring in stricter measures to combat COVID-19 even as cases soar.

“Nothing is going to be closed, we can all look after ourselves,” he said, adding: “We have to guarantee freedom. We do not need to exaggerate with authoritarian measures like curfews.

“Why don’t people look after themselves, why do the authorities need to be behind people … giving them hand sanitizer as if they were children who cannot understand? No!”

He added that there are “huge demonstrations in Europe, France, because of the excessive measures governments are implementing there. Enough!”

At the weekend, more than 160,000 people protested across France against a bill introducing obligatory coronavirus vaccinations for certain professions and conditional access to cultural events, as well as travel, based on a health pass showing proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test. That bill became law on Monday. The number of protesters was up by some 50,000 on a week earlier. Around 35 percent of French citizens support such protests, according to a new poll.

But López Obrador said although “we have all lost loved ones and we all need to look after ourselves … we need to move on without being subjugated by the pandemic.”