Taken up by critics and supporters of Emmanuel Macron, a quote falsely attributed to Angela Merkel has been circulating on social networks since Tuesday. The former German chancellor would have launched about the French president: “He is the most fascinating and intelligent head of state that I have met”.
A few weeks before the presidential election – for which Emmanuel Macron has not yet applied – the sentence has been relayed thousands of times
on Facebook and
on Twitter.
FAKE OFF
The confusion was born from an article published Tuesday on the website of Gala. In this article devoted to the “charming personality” of the president, the quote is attributed to Angela Merkel. The magazine specifies that these remarks were first reported by The world.
This sentence on Emmanuel Macron is well in an article from World on the “chameleon president” which was published the day before, on February 14. However, it is Daniel Cohn-Bendit who makes these comments. The world reports that the former militant of May 68 is an “occasional visitor” to the Elysée. Daniel Cohn-Bendit and the president have differences of opinion, especially when the question arose of the reception of the Aquarius boat in 2018, says the daily.
The world then devotes this paragraph to the environmental activist:
” “He [Emmanuel Macron] breaks his head over reality and its contradictions”, sighs Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who remembers the statements of his protege, three years earlier, praising the action of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, for having “saved our collective dignity by welcoming refugees in distress” during the migration crisis of 2015. But the former troublemaker of May 68 cannot blame him. “He is the most fascinating and intelligent head of state that I met”, he breathes.
Angela Merkel left the German chancellery on December 8, after sixteen years leading the country. For his first trip abroad, his successor, Olaf Scholz, was received on December 10 at the Elysée Palace by Emmanuel Macron.