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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

France’s Macron hit for speaking English

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PARIS: French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron has come under fire from the far right for showing disrespect for the French language by daring to address a conference in English.


Macron, a 39-year-old centrist whose prospects are being taken increasingly seriously, took what amounts to an unusual move in French politics by defending the European Union during a visit to Berlin on Tuesday.


And he raised eyebrows further by doing it in the language of “les anglosaxons” — too much for far-right leader Marine Le Pen, whose nationalist instincts are matched by a contempt for the European Union.


“Presidential candidate Macron goes to Berlin to do a conference in English... poor France!” she wrote on Tuesday in a tweet personally signed by her.


Responding to a tweeted suggestion that Macron’s language skills had upstaged his monolingual opponents, Le Pen’s loyal lieutenant Florian Philippot went further.


“He just shows that he has no respect for our language and that he doesn’t believe in France,” wrote the vice-president of the National Front party— AFP


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