French President Emmanuel Macron has criticized his American counterpart Donald Trump and some other foreign leaders for their “stupid comments" about the recent street unrest in France, accusing them of seeking political gain through making such remarks.
Speaking during a visit to Qatar on Wednesday, Macron censured foreign leaders for what he called spreading misleading information on the weekend unrest, which erupted across France after half a million people took to the streets to protest the cost of living, following four weeks of school demonstrations.
He did not mention any foreign leader, including Trump, by name, but stressed that “manipulation of information” after Saturday’s riots had led to “comments that are as unacceptable as they are stupid, from many people, including foreign leaders.”
When asked whether he was referring to Trump, Macron replied: “Among others.”
“There are people who campaign at France’s expense – leaders who are in campaign mode, whether here in the region or on the other side of the Atlantic,” Macron noted.
In reaction to massive unrest in France, the American president had blamed the violence occurred during the rallies on “migrants, jihadists and communists” as he busily campaigns for his Republican party ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.
Some leaders “in the middle of election campaigns, whether here in the region or on the other side of the Atlantic” were “naively spreading narratives that certain circles are clearly trying to promote,” Macron told reporters in the Qatari capital, Doha.
The French president, who seeks to ink energy deals in some Persian Gulf countries, further accused those leaders of “using our country for their own political campaigns”, stressing, “We don’t need that. We already have difficulties to deal with.”
Macron, whose second term in office nears completion, also alleged that AI-generated images were circulating “depicting scenes that never actually happened in France. We’ve had people claiming that we were invaded by hordes of migrants and Islamists, which is completely false.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who must face tough elections next weekend, also alleged that the European country had been hit by what he called an “invasion of extremist Islam.”
This is while analysts have dismissed allegations that migrants were the main factor in France’s recent protests.
Macron and his government are struggling to handle a crisis that unfolded some six months before presidential elections to choose his successor. His government has admitted it “lost control” over widespread rioting on Saturday, as the country prepares for more protests this weekend.
Largely peaceful demonstrations over the cost of living quickly turned into rampant violence and extensive looting, particularly in Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Limoges, where the town hall was torched and partially destroyed, as Macron pledged to prevent any repeat of last weekend’s convulsions.
Protests in other European countries, including Italy and Albania, have heightened Western governments’ concerns that mounting public anger over rising prices and deteriorating living standards could spread across the continent.
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