Emmanuel Macron has defended his decision not to impose a third lockdown in France earlier this year, despite the country now facing a surge of Covid infections.
The French president added that is was vital that children were kept in schools and businesses stayed solvent as the pandemic moved into its second year.
Mr Macron’s comments come as the country’s intensive care units are at or beyond capacity in Paris and several other regions because of a resurgence of critically ill virus patients, and more than 1,000 people with Covid-19 are dying every week in the country.
Late on Thursday night at the end of an EU summit, he said: “We were right not to implement a lockdown in France at the end of January because we didn’t have the explosion of cases that every model predicted.
“There won’t be a mea culpa from me. I don’t have remorse and won’t acknowledge failure.”