French President Emmanuel Macron admonished a schoolboy who called him by his first name, telling the teen: “You call me Mr President.”
The president was speaking to schoolchildren gathered to watch an official ceremony paying tribute to the French Resistance when an unnamed adolescent in the crowd greeted him with “How’s it going, Manu?”
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“You call me Mr President or sir,” he said. “You are here at an official ceremony, you behave yourself,” he continued, to the squirming boy’s discomfort.
“Yes, Mr President,” the chastised youngster replied.
For good measure, Macron also told him off for humming socialist anthem The Internationale rather than the French national anthem, the Marseillaise.
“The day you want a revolution, first you have to learn to get an education and feed yourself, okay?” he said. “And then you can start lecturing other people.”
Since taking office, Macron has frequently come under fire in the French press for what are seen as delusions of grandeur out of place in the cradle of republicanism. Satirical cartoons frequently compare him to Napoleon or Caesar.
In one notorious post-election interview, Macron said his predecessor, Francois Hollande, had failed to remain aloof and “Jupiter-like” while in office - comments interpreted by many as Macron seeing himself as a godlike ruler.
Despite subsequent attempts to distance himself from the comments, the Jupiter comparison has continued to haunt Macron, Politico reports.
Other gaffes include “referring to ‘illiterate’ abattoir workers, ‘alcoholic’ laid-off workers or the ‘poor people’ who travel on buses”, says French radio station RFI.
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