French President Macron pelted with tomatoes

Emmanuel Macron narrowly missed being hit by a bag of tomatoes during a surprise visit to a working-class area north of Paris, as he promised a new style of “listening to people” after his re-election as president.

In his first public appearance since Sunday’s vote, Macron strolled around a food market in the town of Cergy, north-west of Paris, shaking hands and posing for selfies. Most people were friendly, some shouted congratulations and others asked for help in finding a job, dealing with health problems or making ends meet.

But at one point there were briefly boos, and a bag of tomatoes was thrown towards Macron’s back but missed. A bodyguard opened an umbrella to shield the president, who quickly sidestepped the projectile and continued to greet people and shake hands.

The Élysée Palace said the trip was Macron’s way of “listening to people’s concerns, expectations and needs”. He told local young people that he wanted to get out on the ground “from the start”. One young woman replied: “Don’t just come here for the photos.” Another onlooker said: “It’s good that he’s getting out of the Élysée.”

Macron won a second term at the weekend, beating the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen by 58.5% to her 41.5%, but on the campaign trail he faced accusations of being haughty and aloof and of not understanding people’s concerns about the cost of living, housing, jobs and poverty. He had struggled to shake off the tag of “president of the rich”.

Macron said in Cergy: “I want to give a message of respect and consideration to these areas that are among the poorest in the country, right from the start of my mandate.”

Crowd of people with press microphones and black umbrella
Bodyguards protect Emmanuel Macron with an umbrella after tomatoes were thrown at him during his Cergy visit. Photograph: Benoît Tessier/AP

He acknowledged that deprived, high-rise neighbourhoods surrounding Paris had some of the highest abstention rates in the presidential vote. Macron said “life was hard” there and some people felt angry or cut off from politics, and not enough progress had been made in recent years to improve their lives.

He said there were problems of discrimination, and a need for training schemes, more doctors and better health care in these areas, as well as job creation. “We’ve brought down unemployment here, but it’s still above the national average because of discrimination and not enough training,” he said after meeting young local entrepreneurs.

Macron, the first French leader to be re-elected for a second term in 20 years, is now focused on parliamentary elections in June. He will need a centrist majority in the 577-seat house in order to put in place his manifesto plans, including overhauling the benefits system and raising the pension age. Pollsters believe he has a good chance of winning a majority.

-The Guardian

POST TAGS

ABOUT: Nana Kwesi Coomson

[email protected]

An Entrepreneur, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communications Executive and Philanthropist. Editor-in-Chief of www.233times.com. A Senior Journalist with Ghanaian Chronicle Newspaper. An alumnus of Adisadel College where he read General Arts. His first degree is in Bachelor of Arts - Political Science (major) and History (minor) from the University of Ghana. He holds MSc in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Energy with Public Relations (PR) from the Robert Gordon University in the United Kingdom. He is a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow who studied at Clark Atlanta University in USA on the Business and Entrepreneurship track.

View all posts by: Nana Kwesi Coomson  

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

ABOUT 233TIMES

233times is a Ghanaian media house which serves as a major source of exclusive interviews ,music and video downloads, news and more.

233times reports on major events,news covering entertainment, politics, sports, business, technology, etc from within Ghana, Africa and beyond.

We have a platform for the amateur artistes to portray their staggering talents ...more...

CONTACT US

For further enquiries, please contact us via our contact us page link: CONTACT

WE ON SOCIAL MEDIA. FOLLOW US


To advertise with us or make enquiries, please visit 233times.net/advertise or call Selorm (Selorm) | Selorm (Nana Kwesi)