In the middle of another speaker’s speech, Macron got up from his seat and began to look around the hall in irritation. Subsequently, he took the stage unannounced. “Already? You’re not waiting for your turn,” the presenter tried to object, but she handed the microphone to the French president.
Macron then began to discipline the people in the hall. “Sorry everyone. Hey, hey, hey. I’m sorry, guys. But it’s impossible to talk about culture in this noise and have inspiring people come here to give a speech. It’s a total lack of respect. So I suggest: if you want to have private conversations or talk about something else, you have the bilateral meeting rooms available, or you can go out. If you want to stay here, we listen to the speakers and play by the same rules. Okay, thank you,” said the head of the Elysée Palace. According to the footage, his tactics apparently worked, and he even received applause for his appeal.
The “Africa Forward” summit in Nairobi is co-organized by France and Kenya, the event is attended by the leaders of more than thirty African countries, as well as, for example, the Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, described as the richest man in Africa.
Paris is co-organizing the event after a recent series of failures in West Africa, where the current regimes in several francophone countries cut off security and trade cooperation with France, the Reuters agency noted.
