French President Emmanuel Macron accused Haiti’s transitional council of being “total morons” for dismissing the country’s prime minister, according to a video shot at the G20 summit in Brazil this week and shared on social media Thursday.
In the footage, the French leader is speaking on the sidelines of the G20 in Rio with an individual accusing Macron and France of “being responsible for the situation in Haiti”.
Haiti’s transitional council pushed out then-prime minister Garry Conille after just five months in office, a move Macron called “terrible” in the clip.
“They’re total morons,” said Macron referring to the transitional body, adding, “they never should have dismissed him.”
Condemning the remarks, Haiti’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that French Ambassador Antoine Michon had been summoned following the “unacceptable comments.”
Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship Jean-Victor Harvel Jean-Baptiste used the meeting to express “indignation” on behalf of the transitional council, which he said viewed the remarks as “an unfriendly and inappropriate gesture that must be rectified,” according to a statement from the ministry.
Haiti has suffered from decades of political instability.
But in recent months, the Caribbean country has seen a surge in violence with gangs now controlling 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The clip also shows the French president, who is on a multi-leg tour of Latin America with his most recent stop in Chile, blaming Haitians for “letting drug trafficking take over”.
“Quite frankly, it was the Haitians who killed Haiti,” the French president said in the clip.
Businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aime was sworn in as Haiti’s new prime minister on November 12, promising to restore security in the crisis-wracked country.
