Macron’s candor has at times angered various constituencies during his nine years as president.
In 2017, he referred to “successful people and people who are nothing” while speaking to a crowd of entrepreneurs — comments that were widely read as class contempt. Macron later said he regretted those remarks.
And in late 2024, Macron also told a crowd in the French overseas region of Mayotte, which had just been hit by a devastating cyclone, that they would be “10,000 times” worse off without the French state.
Macron will leave India Thursday after a visit that included a state reception from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a stop at the AI action summit.