French President Emmanuel Macron lost his temper during his visit to the French archipelago of Mayotte and got into an argument with a group of people who criticized and booed him, AFP reported, BTA reported.
"You are lucky to be in France. Because if it weren't for France, you would be in 10,000 times more trouble", the head of state told the crowd gathered around him. "There is no place in the Indian Ocean where we can help people so much", he added.
His words sparked controversy and led to reactions from his opponents in Paris.
"A president cannot speak like this. In which other French territory would the president lecture our fellow citizens, asking them to stop complaining about their tragedy because they are already happy enough to be French?“, reacted in "Ex" Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure.
Macron said today that the hostile crowd was made up of "political activists from "National Rally", the far-right party of Marine Le Pen.
The death toll from the passage of Cyclone "Shido" through the French archipelago has reached 35 people, according to new figures provided by the French Ministry of the Interior. 67 are seriously injured and 2,432 people have minor injuries. The cyclone that passed on Saturday devastated much of the French archipelago in the Indian Ocean.