Macron's Vulgarity A Big Deal, Claims U.S. History Prof

This week, French politicians and pundits have, like Capt. Renault at Rick’s Cafe in Casablanca, fallen over one another to express their shock that cussing is going on in France, Foreign Policy reported.

Photo Insert: Macron has been outraged by the anti-vax movement in France and he has described the French who refuse to get jabbed as shit.

What’s worse, the cussing is coming not from the corner cafe but instead from inside the presidential palace, the Elysée, says Robert Zaretsky, a professor of history at the University of Houston’s Honors College and the author of “Victories Never Last: Reading and Caregiving in a Time of Plague.”

Merde, alors. In fact, the French word merde, meaning “shit”—or, more precisely, the related verb emmerder—is the swear word in question. Remarkably, with this word, President Emmanuel Macron seems to have sworn war against a minority of his fellow French.

Macron has been outraged by the anti-vax movement in France and he directed his fury at those who question the wisdom of vaccination against the deadly COVID-19 virus. Describing them as shit, the French who refuse to be jabbed are helping spread the Omicron variant of the virus.

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