False: French President Emmanuel Macron said England was "fearful of losing Scotland" and referred to it as a "murderous" and "oppressive" nation.

By: Anurag Baruah
February 17 2023

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Context

A graphic is doing the rounds on Facebook claiming to show a quote from the French President Emmanuel Macron describing England as "fearful of losing Scotland." The text also claims that Macron referred to England as a "murderous," "predator," "cruel," and "oppressive" nation.

The quote attributed to Macron reads: "England is extremely fearful of 'losing' Scotland, hence the reason for their irrationality, and their lashing out at other nations who share Scotland's plight in that England removed Scotland from the EU against its democratic will. England is an oppressive nation. A predator nation. A breaker of rules. A breaker of Treaties. A breaker of Peoples and nations. A murderous nation. A cruel nation."

Macron first came to power in 2017 and won a second term as president in 2022, making him the first French leader to be re-elected in 20 years. There is no evidence that Macron said the quote mentioned above.

In Fact

A reverse image search took us to the same graphic published by the Scottish Daily Express as part of a news report on February 12, 2022. The report said that the graphic had been posted on the Facebook page of the Orkney branch of the Scottish National Party (SNP), for which it was later made to apologize and take it down. A screengrab of the post published in the report, which focused on a Scottish Conservative member of parliament's (MP) strong reaction to the post, showed that it was posted on January 31 on the SNP Orkney's Facebook page.

This led us to another news report by the Scottish Daily Express from February 7, 2022, about the same graphic. According to this report, the Scottish Conservative MSP for Highlands and Islands Jamie Halcro Johnston said that the "quote being spread was entirely made-up is the least of the problems with this vile post."

Scottish Liberal Democratic MSP for Orkney Liam McArthur termed the quote fake. "It is astonishing that anyone would be gullible enough to fall for such a fake quote," McArthur said, according to the report. 

The report added that a spokesperson for the SNP Orkney branch apologized and stated that the particular post had been deleted and the person responsible for it removed from the administrator duty of the Facebook page. 

Further, we did not find any news report saying that the French president made the statements mentioned in the graphic, which would have been the case if they were real. 

However, the Franco-British relationship is complicated, and Macron appears to support Scotland's desire to return to the European Union. According to a report by The National, in 2017, after the Brexit vote, in response to a question about whether he supports Scottish independence, Macron said, "I can't speak for others. But I think Scotland have a heart and knowledge and understanding that they love Europe". The report also stated that in his 2021 New Year's speech, he told the French public that Brexit had not happened on truthful terms.

The Verdict

There is no evidence that the French president ever made any of the statements mentioned in the viral graphic. Members of the Scottish Parliament termed it fake, and the post had to be taken down by the SNP branch, making it clear that the statements had been concocted. Therefore, we are marking the claim as false.