“Bastard”, the word is strong and it caused a reaction. Asked about France Inter on the failure of Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the state of the left after the presidential election, Thursday April 28, François Ruffin replied by designating Emmanuel Macron as the “bastard” by Francois Hollande. “Today, there is a flag of the left which is high, which can shine when it could no longer exist, welcomed the deputy La France insoumise. When we had five years of Holland, and his heir, his son or his bastard, Emmanuel Macron, is presented as being the continuity of this left, it could be rolled in the country, it is not. “
The use of the word “bastard” to qualify the re-elected president caused many elected officials from La République en Marche to react, who point “provocation and excess” and denounce a “insult”.
.@Francois_Ruffin as always chooses provocation and excess.
In the end, it remains faithful to the spirit of the @FranceInsoumise : we insult the winners (“bastard”), we despise the vote of the French, we constantly redo the match.
Unworthy of an elected member of our parliament. pic.twitter.com/d2TGmnEGFx
— Christophe Castaner (@CCastaner) April 28, 2022
Mr. Ruffin loses his nerves and insults the President of the Republic, but also all those who re-elected him. It further lowers the level of public debate. Bad loser, resentment leads him astray. pic.twitter.com/bEb5jeYlYg
— Nathalie Loiseau (@NathalieLoiseau) April 28, 2022
In response, François Ruffin persists and signs by recalling on Twitter the definition of the word bastard. “‘Bastard, nm: illegitimate child’. It’s true, it’s not fair: Macron is in the right line of Holland. ‘My enemy is finance’ gave birth to a banker at the Elysée. With the same policy: CICE, Labor law, pension reform and company”.
“Bastard, nm: illegitimate child”. It’s true, it’s not fair: Macron is in the right line of Hollande. “My enemy is finance” gave birth to a banker at the Elysée. With the same policy: CICE, labor law, pension reform and company.
— Francois Ruffin (@Francois_Ruffin) April 28, 2022
According to Francois Ruffin, “Emmanuel Macron’s election is legitimate, on the other hand, the project he is carrying is today a minority in the country”. Still on France Inter, he retains “two important successes” from LFI to the presidential election. The first is that“a third of young people voted Jean-Luc Mélenchon”. For him it is “a leaven for the future, it could be Marine Le Pen, it’s not the case”. He is also pleased that “the left finds a right of citizenship in the districts, and that is not nothing, those who have abstained for a long time”. François Ruffin nevertheless identifies “a huge black spot” : peri-urban France preferred the candidate of the National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen, to Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “I think that we have not set ourselves the priority of going to reconquer this France (…) in the old working-class industrial basins which, it is a reality, are abandoned.”