Macron tells teen to behave at official ceremony

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Europe

00:56

Rather than enjoying the moment whilst taking selfies with crowds, French President Emmanuel Macron did not like the "overly-friendly" greeting he received from a teenage boy on June 19.

French President Emmanuel Macron takes a selfie with children at the memorial ceremony. /VCG Photo

At an official visit to the Mont Valerien National Memorial in Suresnes on the outskirts of Paris, where hundreds of French Resistance members were executed during World War II, a teen in the crowd greeted the President with a breezy “How is it going, Manu?”

Unexpectedly for the boy, he received a harsh dressing-down from Macron.

“No, you can’t do that, no, no, no," Macron said.

“Sorry, Mr. President,” the teenager said, seemingly abashed.

“You are here, at an official ceremony and you should behave. You can play the fool but today it’s the 'Marseillaise', the 'Chant des Partisans' (French Resistance song), so you call me 'Mister President' or 'sir', OK? There you go.”

The president then told the boy, who began by singing The Internationale, being regarded as an attempt to criticize Macron’s plan on pro-business reform, that he should do things in the right order.

“Even if you want to lead a revolution one day, you’ve first got to earn a diploma and learn how to put food on the table, OK?”

“Why get honors when you just need to pass?” the boy asked.

“If you want to show what you are capable of and go as far as you can. You can’t just be satisfied with the minimum,” the president then said.

The rebuke was captured by the camera and spread on social media quickly, with the President even sharing it himself.

“Respect is the minimum in the Republic-especially in the presence of the Companions of the liberation on June 18. But this does not prevent a relaxed conversation-look to the end,” wrote Macron on his Twitter.

Macron then retweeted the video on his Twitter, which stirred a controversial discussion around the appropriateness of his rebuke towards a teenager in public.

Meanwhile, the video also stirred a heated discussion around the appropriateness of Macron’s rebuke.

“Humiliating a 15-year-old kid in front of millions of people just to hook up with the right-wing electorate, that’s also macronism,” Ben commented under Macron’s post.

“It’s not humiliating! It is learning the norms of society that his parents have not taught him!” Calixte De Sorbay said.

“Macron was right. At an event like this, it showed a lack of respect for the event. Certainly anyone could tell a president off, but I would not do it at Arlington,” Mtnview said.