Macron interrupted in Kenya: “Like a colonizer”

TT

Published 11.38

 

French President Emmanuel Macron during a youth-led panel debate at the University of Nairobi on Monday. Photo: Brian Inganga/AP/TT

French President Emmanuel Macron stormed the stage, grabbed the microphone and demanded silence from the audience.

The move at a conference in Kenya is met with criticism.

The idea of ​​the Africa Forward Summit was to underline France’s shift from former colonial power to equal partner. But it fell flat when Macron interrupted a panel discussion by proclaiming that he would “establish order”.

– Excuse me, everyone! Hello! he shouted and criticized the noise level.

– If you want to stay in here, you listen to the people (on stage), he said.

Now critical voices are being raised.

“As soon as he sets foot on the African continent, he cannot help but behave like a colonizer,” writes Danièle Obono of the left-wing party Indomitable France on X.

“He behaved like a teacher scolding children,” says Thierno Mbaye, a history student from Senegal, to the AP.