the Elysée denies racist comments attributed to Emmanuel Macron

The presidency criticized, on Friday, an article in “Le Monde” in which the head of state is presented as having affirmed in 2023 that “the problem of emergencies in this country is that it is full of Mamadou”.

It’s a phrase that provokes a lot of reaction, but whose authenticity is contested. The presidency of the Republic brought a “firm and absolute denial”Friday December 20, after racist remarks were attributed to Emmanuel Macron in an article in Monde published the day before. According to the daily, the head of state would have said, in 2023, before his Minister of Health Aurélien Rousseau, that “the problem with emergencies in this country is that it’s full of Mamadous”.

“At no time was the Elysée asked about these reported comments, obviously by opponents, which raises questions from an ethical point of view”commented the services of the Head of State, requested by franceinfo. Aurélien Rousseau, now a member of the New Popular Front, refused to contact franceinfo to do anything “comment” on “something reported that is more than a year old”. The World announced on Friday that he was maintaining his information, without specifying whether he had contacted the Elysée before publication.

Part of the opposition was outraged on Thursday at the sentence attributed to the head of state. “These racist remarks by the President of the Republic, reported by the newspaper The Worldare an insult to the Republic. It’s an absolute disgrace. I can’t wait for him to go away.”had written on Bluesky the coordinator of La France insoumise, Manuel Bompard. These words “are racist. Without a doubt. They are damning”had added to X the communist senator from Paris Ian Brossat.

The World also argued, Wednesday, that the Elysée had baptized Matignon “The Mad Cage” when the Prime Minister was Gabriel Attal, openly homosexual. On Thursday, he claimed that the president had called “casseroles” Marine Tondelier, head of the Ecologists, and Lucie Castets, candidate of the New Popular Front for Matignon. Words “homophobes” et “sexist”according to the elected environmentalist, but also denied Thursday by the Elysée to HuffPost.