“Lack of professionalism” of ministers and journalists, “disintegration of public debate”… Pressed to respond to criticism after comments reported on the creation of the State of Israel which earned him reprimands from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and of the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher, Emmanuel Macron violently retaliated Thursday October 17.
“I would like to take the liberty of recalling a few rules,” said the head of state, very angry, as a preamble to his press conference following a European summit in Brussels. “I must tell you how amazed I was to read so many comments, comments of comments, reactions, including from political leaders, foreign or French, to comments that I would have made without asking the question of knowing […] exactly what I would have said,” he said.
Comments reported by “ventriloquists”
This controversy has its origins in the declarations of the Head of State reported by participants in the Council of Ministers, Tuesday October 15. While the war in Gaza and Lebanon was being discussed, Emmanuel Macron would have declared that “Mr. Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a UN decision”, according to these sources, in response to the non- Israeli compliance with United Nations resolutions. He thus urged the Israeli Prime Minister, with whom he has increased the number of skirmishes in recent days, not to “free himself from UN decisions”, according to these same participants.
Beyond the indignant response of the Israeli Prime Minister, these presidential remarks triggered strong questions from French supporters of Israel’s action in the Middle East, up to a call to order from the third character of State, Gérard Larcher: “To cast doubt on the existence of Israel touches on fundamental questions for me”, declared the President of the Senate, directly targeting the President by accusing him of a “misunderstanding of the history of the birth of Israel.
Taking the opposite view of these accusations, Emmanuel Macron attacked “ministers”, “journalists” and “commentators”, denying his comments “as they were reported”. “I think I say enough about the situation in the Middle East not to need a ventriloquist,” he lashed out.
A critique of media coverage
He also called on ministers to “show respect for the rules and functions so as not to circulate false information” and journalists “to treat the comments reported with the necessary precautions”. “There is no ambiguity”, France has “never failed” to the State of Israel, insisted Emmanuel Macron.
The repeated invectives with Benjamin Netanyahu, triggered by the French leader’s call to stop supplying Israel with weapons used to shell Gaza and Lebanon, have also found many echoes in the Jewish community and in the French political class, including included within the Macronist camp in the National Assembly. After Emmanuel Macron’s clarification, deputies from the former presidential majority immediately welcomed the approach of the head of state at a time when he appears more and more isolated after the earthquake of dissolution. “France’s voice in the world deserves better than the distortion of the truth,” replied Mathieu Lefèvre, former president of the France-Israel friendship group in the Assembly, on the social network.
More ironically, the spokesperson for the Ecologist and Social group in the Assembly, Benjamin Lucas, asked: “That’s true, journalists, why don’t you simply and stupidly repeat the official press releases?” The Presidential Press Association (APP) for its part considered that the president was “seriously calling into question the ethics of the press. […] Our work cannot be reduced to repeating official declarations”, she pointed at.