Earlier this month, the French president berated the Financial Times for “distorting” his words on Islamist separatism, referring to an article in the newspaper that has since been removed.
In an interview with The New York Times on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron hit out at the English-language media over its coverage of a series of terrorist attacks that recently hit his country.
“When france was attacked five years ago, every nation in the world supported us”, Macron told NYT columnist Ben Smith, in an apparent nod to a terror attack on the editorial staff of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January 2015, which claimed the lives of at least 12 people.
He insisted that “foreign media failed to understand [the essence of] ‘laicite'”, or secularism, which is seen as one of the pillars of French policy and pertains to separation of сhurch and state.
The president also referred to the French “model” as “universalist, not multiculturalist”, adding, “in our society, I don't care whether someone is Black, yellow or white, whether they are Catholic or Muslim; a person is first and foremost a citizen”.
Macron Blasts FT for ‘Distorting' His Words on Islamist Separatism
The remarks came a few weeks after Macron sent a letter to the editor of the Financial Times (FT), clarifying his stance towards French Muslims after the newspaper accused him of “stigmatising” the minority community “for electoral purposes and of fostering a…
Once again the media can become a fifth column or enemy of the nation is supposed to serve. The French president is doing what is absolutely necessary and all of the so-called refugees should never have been allowed in the first place. Families yes, single men no!