LEFT-WING French electoral candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon refused to speak in English to the BBC during an interview, saying he would only converse in Spanish – the language of his grandparents.
Leader of the independent party La France Insoumise ('Unsubmissive France'), the politician stopped a British reporter mid-flow with: “English no; Spanish, yes.”
He later uploaded a video to YouTube in which he accuses the British of arrogance and 'imperialism'.
“They think the whole world should speak English,” Mélenchon complained, in Spanish.
“It's because they're intrinsically imperialist, they think they own the world – you give a press conference and you're expected to speak English.
“La France Insoumise isn't the only political outfit which refused to speak English with the BBC; a few years ago, Germany's deputy Chancellor Guido Westerwelle, when interviewed on home soil, pointed out, 'in the UK you speak English, but here in Germany we speak German',” Mélenchon continues.
Mélenchon was born in France, but is half-Spanish, since his grandparents were born and bred in Spain.
Spanish president Mariano Rajoy famously dodged the language issue last month when a BBC reporter asked him in English during an EU press conference whether Spain would veto an independent Scotland entering the EU.
Rajoy, whose English is virtually non-existent, stuttered, hesitated, and then swiftly turned to a Spanish-speaking reporter to hear his question instead.
One of Rajoy's many 'quotable quotes', which include a series of headline-making gaffes, has been haunting him since 2012 when he met with the then British prime minister David Cameron and, referring to speaking English, said: “It's very difficult todo esto.”
That said, Rajoy managed better at a later meeting on the same day with France's president François Hollande, given that the PP leader is of the generation who learned French at school, rather than English.
At the time, Rajoy had just started taking private English-language lessons, although it is not known whether he has continued with these.
