''Change-resistant Gauls'': Macron under fire for ''mocking'' French

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French President Emmanuel Macron came under fire from the political opponents on Thursday after describing his countrymen as “Gauls who are resistant to change” during a trip to Denmark. The controversial comments came during an exchange with French expatriates in the Scandinavian country, which Macron has long admired for its economic model that mixes a strong social security system with rules allowing companies to easily fire workers. “Let’s not be naive, what is possible is linked to a culture, to a people who are the product of their history,” the French leader said on Wednesday afternoon. “These Lutheran [Protestant] people, who have experienced transformations in recent years, are not like the Gauls who are resistant to change,” he said, using a term for the ancient Celtic tribes that roamed France more than 2000 years ago. FRANCE 24’s Douglas Herbert takes a closer look at the debate.

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