A video of French President Emmanuel Macron yelling at a teenager who called him by a nickname went viral on social media Tuesday.
The video shows Macron shaking hands in a crowd, when the teenager — using a diminutive for Macron’s first name — asks him: “How’s it going, Manu?”
Macron stops and responds: “No, no, no, no. Call me ‘Mr. President of the Republic,’ or ‘monsieur.’”
Admonishing the junior high school student, he said: “You’re here, at an official ceremony and you should behave. You can play the fool but today it’s the Marseillaise, the Chant des Partisans (French Resistance song), so you call me ‘Mister President’ or ‘Sir’. Ok? There you go.”
He then adds: “The day you want to start a revolution, get a degree and learn to feed yourself, OK? You can start lecturing others then.”
The exchange occurred Monday at a ceremony commemorating Charles De Gaulle’s historic appeal for armed resistance against Nazi tyranny.
Macron tweeted a video of the discussion, prompting a flood of comments Tuesday. Some applauded the French leader’s demand for respect, while others criticized what they saw as his arrogance.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.