Macron issues rallying call for French resistance to English as ‘the language of tomorrow’

EMMANUEL MACRON launched an international drive to promote French as a “world language” yesterday, urging francophone countries to resist the temptation to turn to English.

“France today should be proud of being one country among others that learns, speaks and writes in French,” the president told the Académie Française, an august body of luminaries that has struggled for decades to resist a relentless tide of English expressions. “French should become the language that creates tomorrow’s world.”

However, French commentators were quick to point out that the 40-year-old president, a fluent English-speaker, is himself fond of using English expressions. “France is back” and “start-up nation” have become catchphrases associated with him.

Mr Macron, the first French president to readily give interviews in English, rejected the criticism. He said that promoting French did not mean shutting off France to other languages, arguing it was important to show that French and English could coexist as major international languages.

Mr Macron, who is striving to reassert French influence as Britain focuses on Brexit and the US becomes increasingly isolationist under Donald Trump, wants French to become the “first language” of Africa. The world’s sixth most spoken language, it is widely used in former French colonies in Africa. Mr Macron ur-ged them not to emulate Rwanda, a former Belgian colony that adopted English and joined the Commonwealth in 2009.

On the streets of France, the rapidly proliferating number of shops and businesses with signs in English is visible evidence of the encroachment of “la langue de Shakespeare”.

Cyril Gaillard of Bénéfik, a consultancy that develops brand names, said: “Business people think that it’s more funky, more fun and more modern to use English. They think French is an uncool language.”