PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A member of Haiti’s transitional presidential council has publicly criticized comments by French President Emmanuel Macron, who was caught on camera calling the Caribbean country’s leaders “total idiots” mentioned.
The council’s former president, Edgard Leblanc Fils, said in a statement late on Sunday that Macron had insulted an entire nation “living through dark times.”
Macron was filmed making the comments on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Brazil earlier this month, as he criticized the council’s decision to abruptly oust Prime Minister Garry Conille after just six months in office.
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“They are complete idiots,” Macron had said, referring to the council. “They should never have fired him.”
After Conille’s resignation, the council appointed Alix Didier Fils-Aimé as the new Prime Minister.
In his statement, Leblanc said that “(Macron) did not hesitate to intervene in a matter that essentially concerns the Haitian authorities, declaring that he supported Prime Minister Conille, that the latter was formidable.”
Macron’s comments prompted the Haitian Foreign Ministry to summon the French ambassador to Haiti late last week, calling the president’s comments “unfriendly and inappropriate.”
Leblanc took the opportunity to criticize how France, a former colonial power, had forced Haiti to pay the equivalent of billions of dollars to secure its independence.
“Haiti’s independence, won at the cost of blood, should not be subject to any compensation,” Leblanc said. “This ransom must be returned. It will be returned sooner or later.”
Macron’s comments come as gang violence increases in Haiti’s capital and beyond and political instability deepens.
