The French President was accused of “class contempt” after he took aim at protesting workers battling to save their jobs at a bankrupt auto parts manufacturer.
Emmanuel Macron was visiting a training centre in the rural Creuse region, on Wednesday, when he was caught making the remarks, which were apparently aimed at workers of GM&S, more than half of whom face redundancy.
As the French President toured the training centre, a local Socialist official told him that another factory, some 90 miles away from the GM&S plant, was struggling to hire workers.
Mr Macron responded: “There are some who, rather than wreaking f****** havoc, would be better off seeking if they could get a job there because some of them have the right qualifications.”
As he spoke, a group of GM&S workers staged a noisy protest outside, which later descended into scuffles with police.
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As a former investment banker, the 39-year-old president is facing growing unrest from unions to his pro-business agenda and has even provoked unease among members of his own party with plans to scrap a long-standing wealth tax.
Several opposition parties have taken aim at the President for his seemingly disparaging comments aimed at workers.
Clementine Attain, of the hard-left France Unbowed party, described the comments as evidence of Mr Macron’s “gross class contempt”.
Oliver Faure, the head of the Socialist group of MPs, slated Mr Macron’s “contempt for the ‘illiterate’, the ‘slackers’, the nobodies”, which he said contrasted with his “compassion for the very rich”.
These comments were sparked by Mr Macron’s unapologetic tone, said in a speech that we would not back down to “slackers, cynics and extremists” after union-led protests against his proposed overhaul of French Labour laws, in September.
Government spokesman, Christophe Castaner, defended the President’s remarks, saying: “A president should be able to use the words that we all use all the time.”
He added: “Isn’t this what many French people think?”
Mr Macron has a history of clashes with angry trade unionists. In 2016, while he was economy minister, the President was recorded telling a worker: “You don’t scare me with your T-shirt.
“The best way of paying for a suit is to work.”