The new French economy minister was ridiculed on Wednesday as an example of socialist hypocrisy after referring to “illiterate” workers in his first high-profile interview, reports The Telegraph.
Emmanuel Macron’s appearance on television and Europe 1 radio was intended to help the Socialist government set a new tone before Nicolas Sarkozy’s expected return to politics.
Mr Macron, 36, a former Rothschild banker, admitted that France desperately needed pro-business reforms to recover from stagnation and “mass unemployment”.
He went on to explain why the government wanted to force many professionals, including driving instructors, to cut their fees by 20 per cent.
To illustrate the importance of reducing the €1,500 (£1,200) cost of a driving licence, he cited the case of a Brittany abattoir facing hundreds of job cuts.
“This company has a majority of women employees and many of them are illiterate,” Mr Macron said. He added that it was impossible to ask them to take up new jobs 30 or 40 miles away because they did not possess driving licences and could not afford to get them unless fees were cut.
However, his reference to “illiterate” workers provoked outrage from unionists and the conservative UMP party.
“This declaration, which shows an unimaginable contempt, says a lot about the way the economy minister views the reality of Brittany’s industry, where he has never set foot,” said Marc Le Fur, a UMP member of parliament. “Isn’t this a revelation of the deplorable way in which Parisian bourgeois bohemians view Brittany, its women and workers?”
However, it later emerged that 20 per cent of the workforce at the abattoir are illiterate, and official figures show that 7 per cent of adults educated in France, aged between 18 and 65, are illiterate.
Read more of this report from The Telegraph.