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Post by Admin on Jul 12, 2017 18:22:39 GMT
At a press conference at the G20 summit in Hamburg on July 8, French President Emmanuel Macron answered a question from a Cote d'Ivoire journalist. Macron's response included these comments: "The challenge of Africa is completely different, it is much deeper. It is civilizational today. Failing states, complex democratic transitions, the demographic transition." He later said, "One of the essential challenges of Africa ... is that in some countries today seven or eight children [are] born to each woman." Many commentators have called these statements racist, problematic and arrogant. And many of us Africans agree. The French colonial empire ruled over much of North, West and Central Africa from around 1830 until 1960. During this time, African peoples were labeled "French subjects" but as a rule could not own property or vote. By the time the last French colonial country — Gabon — fully gained its "independence" in 1960, France had left behind a legacy of colonization, slavery and pillage.
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Post by Admin on Jul 14, 2017 18:34:38 GMT
President Donald Trump continued his series of awkward handshakes with foreign leaders on Friday, engaging in a hard-to-watch 25-second-long handshake with French President Emmanuel Macron on the streets of Paris. Following the Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees, Macron and Trump bid farewell with a prolonged handshake that, according to body language expert Patti Wood, quickly became a power struggle between the two alpha males.
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Post by Admin on Jul 16, 2017 18:14:36 GMT
President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron hold a joint news conference in Paris.
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Post by Admin on Aug 25, 2017 18:16:06 GMT
During a trip to Austria on Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron appeared to adopt a more open communication strategy as he struggles to offset his falling approval ratings. During a press conference with Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern in Salzburg, Macron took the highly unusual step of talking about national politics, breaking his own rule about not discussing domestic politics with the press when abroad. “What is your unemployment rate, Christian?,” Macron asked Kern in front of the cameras. “5.4 [percent],” replied Kern. “Austria has nearly half the unemployment we do,” Macron observed, referring to France’s 9.6 percent jobless rate. “The reality is that France is the only large economy that hasn’t beaten mass unemployment,” Macron continued. “Our problem is the fact that the job market in France doesn’t work well.”
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Post by Admin on Aug 28, 2017 18:12:40 GMT
He's only 39 and fresh-faced, but France's President Emmanuel Macron has run up a make-up bill of €26,000 in his first 100 days in office, offering fresh ammunition to his critics. The bill, revealed by Le Point magazine and confirmed by the presidency to AFP on Friday, was paid to a freelance make-up artist for work since the centrist took power in mid-May. It recalled an embarrassing revelation about the balding former president Francois Hollande who was forced to admit to employing a private hairdresser on a pre-tax monthly salary of nearly €10,000 euros ($11,800).
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