Macron on authoritarian claims: ‘We’re not Hungary, Turkey’

 

Macron on authoritarian claims: ‘We’re not Hungary, Turkey’

 

The French president touched on police brutality and the pandemic among a dozen topics in TV interview.

 

BY JULES DARMANIN AND PIERRE-PAUL BERMINGHAM

December 4, 2020 9:23 pm

https://www.politico.eu/article/emmanuel-macron-on-france-authoritarian-claims/

 

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday defended his government against claims that it is making the country more authoritarian, saying: “We’re not Hungary, Turkey or others!”

 

“Let’s not let France be caricatured,” Macron said during a televised Q&A session in the newsroom of digital outlet Brut as part of an effort to engage with young people. “I think we’re letting ourselves be infected by an activist discourse, very hostile to the government’s action and to yours truly, which I respect [but] I cannot let people say that we are reducing liberties in our country.”

 

Over the course of more than two hours, Macron discussed police brutality, French values and citizenship, and the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on young people among other topics.

 

Macron faced questions from social media users and journalists including Brut reporter Rémy Buisine, who a week earlier was filmed lying on the ground with a policeman standing over him as officers violently dismantled a migrant camp in the middle of Paris.

 

Buisine kicked off the interview by asking about that police operation and the violent beating of Michel Zecler, a Black music producer, by three policemen.

 

“My role is not to judge, there’s a [judicial] process that started,” said Macron, who added that he was “very shocked” when he saw the footage of Zecler being beaten up.

 

The president said he was also “very shocked by images on Saturday of a policewoman attacked by madmen, by savages,” he said, referring to a video showing protestors pushing and kicking an officer to the ground.

 

He initially refused to use the term “police violence,” which he said had become politicized and “a slogan” for the left. He said he preferred saying “violence by policemen” but admitted that the two terms describe the “same phenomenon.”

 

“We don’t have an American-like police [with] about 10 deaths at every protest,” he added.

 

Macron also discussed secularism, saying he thought France was “very lonely” in defending freedom of speech after teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded because he showed a class caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

 

He gave his own definition of laïcité, the French concept of secularism, in a response to an online question: “It’s the freedom to believe or to not believe … Laïcité is not against a religion.”

 

A day after France announced its coronavirus vaccine plan, Macron remained cautious, deferring to health authorities and saying “we don’t know everything about the vaccine and about the virus.” Asked about Barack Obama volunteering to get the vaccine on camera, Macron said: “I will get it when it makes sense.”

 

Looking back on the French response to the pandemic, and how it might have fueled some resistance to sanitary measures, Macron partially acknowledged failings. “Was everything done the right way? I said no. Is there one country in the world that did it the right way? I haven’t seen that,” he said.

 

The last question was on his plans for a second term. “If I put myself in the situation of a presidential candidate, I cannot make the right decisions,” he said, adding that there could be some circumstances under which he would not seek reelection, without saying what those would be.

 

“Sorry that I raised my voice a little,” Macron said at the end. “Be prudent, don’t be violent, and track those who are violent,” he said when Buisine pointed out that Brut would be covering protests against a controversial security bill on Saturday.