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PARIS FRENCH government spokesman Christophe Castaner on Thursday defended President Emmanuel Macron's use of a vulgar expression after striking workers clashed with police near an event he was speaking at. Macron, in the town of Egletons on Wednesday to inaugurate a renovated vocational school, was caught on camera in what Castaner said was a private exchange with the president of Aquitaine region. (DPA)
Macron suggested that"certain people"would be better off applying for available jobs instead of"kicking up a ruckus"- using a word that originally means"a brothel".
It was the latest in a series of comments that have clashed with the 39-year-old president's carefully controlled image and opened him to accusations of class prejudice from leftist opponents.
"I think that one can be cultivated and [still] speak the way French people do,"Castaner said on Radio Classique.
"I think one can also have the objective in politics... of leaving political waffle behind and calling things by their name,"he added.
Workers from a car parts plant threatened with closure had sought to meet Macron during the visit but ran up against a police cordon, with brief clashes reported.
Macron came under fire in September for appearing to call opponents of his reforms to the country's labour laws"idlers,"although he later said he was referring to leaders who had previously rejected reform.
In July, opening a facility for start-up firms in a former railway station, he drew anger by remarking that"a station is somewhere you meet those who have succeeded and those who are nothing."
# Notebook
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