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French President Emmanuel Macron takes a selfie with members of the crowd after a ceremony commemorating General Charles De Gaulle's June 1940 appeal for French resistance against Nazi Germany, at the Mont Valerien National Memorial in Suresnes on the outskirts of Paris on Monday. Photo: Agence France-Presse

‘Call me Mr President’: watch as France’s Macron puts cheeky teenager in his place

Like most politicians, French President Emmanuel Macron seems to enjoy pressing the flesh and posing for selfies when on public outings.

Just don’t call him by a nickname.

A cheeky teen who dared greet him with a breezy “How’s it going, Manu” during an official outing near Paris on Monday was left red-faced after receiving a sharp dressing-down from the 40-year-old centrist, at an event to commemorate General Charles De Gaulle's June 1940 appeal for French resistance against Nazi Germany

“No, you can’t do that, no, no, no, no,” Macron told the youngster who was waiting with a group of school friends to meet him during his visit to the Mont Valerien fort near Paris, where hundreds of French Resistance members were executed during second world war.

“Sorry, Mr President,” the teenager said, looking abashed.

You can play the fool but today it’s the Marseillaise, the Chant des Partisans, so you call me ‘Mister President’ or ‘Sir’
Emmanuel Macron

But Macron was not about to let matters rest there.

Admonishing the junior high school student, he said: “You’re here, at an official ceremony and you should behave. You can play the fool but today it’s the Marseillaise, the Chant des Partisans (French Resistance song), so you call me ‘Mister President’ or ‘Sir’. OK? There you go.”

Delivering his coup de grace, Macron told the teen, who had begun by singing a few lines from the Socialist anthem The Internationale – a dig at the president’s pro-business reforms – to “do things in the right order”.

“The day you want to start a revolution you study first in order to obtain a degree and feed yourself, OK? And then you can lecture others,” he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron (left) speaks with children as he takes part in a ceremony commemorating General Charles De Gaulle's June 1940 appeal for French resistance against Nazi Germany, at the Mont Valerien National Memorial in Suresnes on the outskirts of Paris on Monday. Photo: Agence France-Presse
Daniel Cordier, former secretary for late French resistance leader Jean Moulin, shakes hands with French President Emmanuel Macron during a ceremony to mark the 78th anniversary of de Gaulle's resistance call. Photo: AP
The exchange, which was captured on camera, was widely shared on social media.

It comes as Macron – who adopted a regal, top-down style on taking office – himself faces criticism for his at-times blunt language.

In an official video shared by his office last week he complained that the French were spending a “crazy amount of dough” on social security.

Macron’s critics held the video up as evidence that the man they call the “president of the rich” lacked empathy with the poor.

Last year, Macron also raised the hackles of the left by calling protesting opponents of his labour reforms “slackers”.

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