UFC legend Conor McGregor has branded “forced” vaccination a “war crime” and slammed the EU and its “lapdogs” in the Irish government.
McGregor, the UFC’s first simultaneous two-weight world champion, made the statement after Neale Richmond, a politician from Ireland’s governing Fine Gael party, had tried to needle him over his statement that it was “time to talk about Ireland leaving the European Union” on Twitter by trying to turn his infamous “You’ll do nuttin’” catch-phrase against him.
“Economic partnership should not mean political surrender. Bailed out and locked in we were, and it was handily done. Lenihan was threatened and folded. Stockholm syndrome comes to mind,” the Irishman said of the EU’s supporters in his country, referencing the infamous Trichet letters which revealed that the European Central Bank (ECB) had strong-armed then-finance minister Brian Lenihan into accepting a punishing bailout in 2010.
“Forced vaccine is a war crime,” McGregor added for good measure.
He elaborated on the point after quote tweeting an anonymous user who had accused him of talking “complete drivel” and told him to “stick to MMA”.
“You think forcing people to inject something into their body is not a crime? People must have the right to choose,” McGregor insisted.
“An attempt to mandate vaccine is coming, per the head of the EU. I cannot agree to this. I know our lap dogs in power will just do as they are told.”
The former featherweight and lightweight world champion was likely referencing recent comments by the President of the European Commission, Angela Merkel protege Ursula von der Leyen, when she told reporters: “How we can encourage and potentially think about mandatory vaccination within the European Union, this needs discussion.”
Merkel herself has already locked down the unvaccinated and endorsed making vaccination compulsory, and revealed that the German parliament will be voting on its imposition shortly. Her incoming successor, Chancellor-designate Olaf Scholz of the leftist Social Democratic Party (SPD), also backs the measure.
Neighbouring Austria, meanwhile, is already making vaccinations compulsory, while Greece is making it compulsory for the over-60s. Technically those who refuse will not be “forced” to “inject something into their body” — but they will be subject to indefinite lockdown, fines, and possible imprisonment for failure to comply.
McGregor deleted his initial tweets against forced vaccination after a time, replacing them with a somewhat milder statement that “Forcing anyone to inject something into their body they do not wish to is abhorrently wrong. I am not against vaccines, I am against not having the choice. God bless those who think otherwise.”
Later, that tweet was also deleted, but he later shared an article from his website, The Mac Life, which quoted many of his Twitter statements.
Previously, McGregor has explained that he “tweets and deletes” controversial statements because he does “not like to keep negativity on my channels.”
“I will always say what I need to say, it gets reported/spread, then I remove from my page. Its [sic] done and out,” he said.