OREANDA-NEWS. Leader of the French party "Unruly France", former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melanchon, commenting on the situation with the shortage of vaccines in the EU, as well as around the Russian "Sputnik V", which has not yet been approved and is not used in France, said that the country's authorities knew on the effectiveness of "Sputnik V" since November last year.

Melanchon said in an interview with BFM TV: "There are not enough vaccines, but why is it? Because we were held hostage by the stupid decisions of the European bureaucracy, which considers the vaccine as a commodity. And we refused, for ideological reasons, from the supply of Russian, Cuban or Chinese vaccines to France, that exist now and work. "

He noted that Germany is now deciding everything in the EU, so France simply cannot take it and say - "We have had enough, we want the Russian vaccine to be urgently supplied here."

"Why am I talking about the Russian vaccine? Because Russia is our neighbor, our partner. We already knew from November last year that their vaccine is effective, and not because Russian propaganda says so, but because the French mission came to the conclusion about the effectiveness of this vaccine, "- said the politician.