After provoking mockery on social media with its new “minister for foreign trade and attractiveness”, the French government has dropped the overly literal translation for the dossier tasked with luring more trade and investment to France, reports FRANCE 24.
President Emmanuel Macron’s cabinet reshuffle on Monday attracted much commentary, with many noting that the government had taken a conservative turn. Some critics accused him of making a power grab by ditching his centre-right prime minister Édouard Philippe – whose popularity had soared thanks to what many saw as his deft handling of the coronavirus crisis – for little-known civil servant Jean Castex. The shakeup was widely seen as Macron’s attempt to reinvent his presidency before facing re-election in 2022.
But Macron’s cabinet revamp brought commentary of another variety when the French foreign ministry’s Twitter account offered a list of its new cabinet positions into English, naming Franck Riester the new “minister for foreign trade and attractiveness”.
The Twitterverse was quick to respond.
Politico reporter Zia Weiss tweeted: “only France could have a minister for attractiveness (but srsly: what)”. “‘Attractiveness’. International relations are going to get interesting …” one French joker replied to original tweet. “When you think your mastery of a foreign language is better than it is. Although [Riester] is, in fact, an attractive man,” another responded.
The Quai d’Orsay’s assertion that it had looked up the word on the Oxford English dictionary website did little to stem the mockery. The three definitions it gives are, “The quality of being pleasing or appealing to the senses,” “(in a person) the quality of being appealing or sexually alluring to look at” and “The possession of qualities or features that arouse interest.”
A French foreign ministry communiqué issued on Tuesday instead referred to Riester as the minister for trade and “appeal”. The next day, the Quai d’Orsay’s head of English-language communications said “economic attractiveness” would be the phrase to use.
But that works much better in the language of Molière than of Shakespeare. “Attractivité” can describe something that is economically attractive, as in the case of attracting investment, rather than good looks.