“These racist remarks by the president... are an insult to the Republic. It is an absolute disgrace,” Manuel Bompard of France Unbowed said on X. “I can’t wait for him [Macron] to go.”

“Yesterday we learnt of extremely shocking homophobic remarks made by the president about Gabriel Attal,” Tondelier said on X. “Today, they are sexist remarks. We are impatiently waiting for tomorrow.”

“Everything goes there [at the Elysee] – racism, homophobia, sexism. All locked away inside a gilded palace, far from the gaze of the French, who he lectures all day long,” left-wing MP Francois Ruffin said.

Macron was also facing controversy over a comment he made on Thursday while on a visit to the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte, which was devastated by Cyclone Chido last weekend.

When angry residents told him that they had no clean drinking water and demanded more aid, saying they felt abandoned by the French authorities. “I’m not the cyclone,” the president responded. “I’m not to blame.”

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Some in the crowds that gathered outside the airport booed the presidential motorcade, shouting “Macron resign”, “You’re talking rubbish” and “Water, water, water”.

“Don’t set people against each other. If you set people against each other, we’re screwed,” Macron told the crowd in the Pamandzi neighbourhood.

“You are happy to be in France. If it wasn’t for France, you would be in way deeper shit, 10,000 times more, there is no place in the Indian Ocean where people receive more help.”

Officials in France’s poorest overseas territory have only been able to confirm 31 fatalities more than five days after the cyclone, but some have said they fear there could be thousands.

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Macron has largely become a lame duck since he lost snap legislative elections in July. He appointed Michel Barnier as prime minister but the right-wing former EU Chief Brexit negotiator was ousted after a no-confidence vote.

He has since been replaced by centrist François Bayrou who, it has widely been reported, strong-armed Mr Macron into appointing him by threatening to withdraw his Modem party’s support.

with agencies