two impromptu phrases from Emmanuel Macron in Davos that went viral on the Internet | EUROtoday

T-shirts, electro or jazzy remixes and 1000’s of parodies… Rarely has a speech on the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland) had such virality. Or somewhat two phrases taken from a speech: the one delivered in English by Emmanuel Macron, Tuesday January 20, during which he acknowledges that Europe “sometimes is too slow, for sure” (“is sometimes too slow, that’s for sure”). By emphasizing the final two phrases, “for sure”, with an exaggerated and, it should be mentioned, a little bit ridiculous accent. “For shur”, will even sarcastically take up, on the social community X, a message from the very official (however satirical) French Response account of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Nothing unites greater than a French president who speaks dangerous English. We, French, see it, a little bit mockingly, as a mirrored image of our dangerous popularity in fashionable languages. Abroad, and notably in English-speaking international locations, it’s a hint of French stylish. And, generally, this French-style English contributes to the success of a brief sentence. In 1996, a number of indignant phrases, spoken in poor English by Jacques Chirac in Jerusalem to Israeli safety officers who had been stopping him from approaching Palestinian demonstrators, immediately turned a world political image: “ What would you like? Me to return to my aircraft and return to France, is that what you need? (…) This is provocation! “.

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