so now Gaf is down to Trudeau as their leader crush
https://twitter.com/wyatt_privilege/status/884480161495867395
Something tells me that if the only sources I can find for this are The Daily Caller and other right-wing nonsense sites, there is probably at least some important context missing here.
An Ivory Coast journalist questioned him about a "Marshall plan" for Africa (decided in the G20) and how much money would be allocated by G20 and France.
Macron basically dismissed the centrality of aid, or at least its capacity to solve problem on its own, and said Africa problems were deeper ("civilizational") and covered also security, stability, extremism, "directing" the private sector wherever it was possible, having the public actors pick up the rest (health for instance) and the need for a demographic transition -used this term twice- ("In countries where women have 7 to 8 kids, you can funnel any number of billions you want, you're not gonna stabilize anything" to translate on the fly).
"Repugnant" is probably hyperbolic, but it does have some nasty undertones. As pointed in a couple of French outlets, studies seem to show that overpopulation is an effect, not a cause, of underdevelopment.
I believe I mentioned it elsewhere but soon after taking office, Macron took a little bit of heat for cracking a tasteless joke about fishing boats from the Comoros Islands that "don't fish a lot but bring a lot of Comoreans" (to nearby Mayotte, a French island in the Indian Ocean).
Regarding Africa there's also the precedent of a terrible speech from President Sarkozy in Dakar
"The African man has not yet entered History enough (...) Africa's problem is that it's living too much in the present and in the nostalgia of lost paradises from childhood (...) in this imaginary landscape where everything is a cycle, there no place for human adventure and the idea of progress", you can imagine how Sénégal intellectual elite appreciated that from the former colonizing power head of state. Macron actually borrows a bit from Sarkozy (the energy, the youth, some of the aggressivity) despite coming from a different place in politics. Plus, you know... France and not minor parts of Africa have a long, twisted history and some bits of the colonialist ideology is still imprinted deep.
We're being shelled by this narrative of Macron iron-fist PR and his demiurgic control but really there's been quite a few slip-ups already. Macron never held any elected office and only has maybe half a decade experience in high level politics, and it shows. I wouldn't rule out he'll shit the bed and be humbled at some point. He wasn't ever gonna live up to his own Massianic/Bonapartist hype long term because nobody can when in charge and having to deal with reality.
