Story By: Ernest Bio Bogore, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
An outspoken French politician has told the country’s under-fire former Health Minister to “shut up” on social media.
The incident took place when Agnes Buzyn, 58, France’s former Health Minister who left her post in February, posted on social media to express her gratitude to those involved in the rescue and reconstruction of the Notre Dame cathedral de Paris.
Her post read: “On 15th April 2019, the whole of Paris was devastated by the fire that ravaged #Notre-Dame.
“One year later, like all Parisians, I keep in my heart deep gratitude for those who saved it and for those who, day after day, help rebuild it.”
Socialist Party MP, Joachim-Son Forget, 37, replied: “Shut up, seriously.”
The former Health Minister has been regularly targeted by critics since the beginning of the coronavirus health crisis
Critics say she did not take the necessary measures in time to stop the spread of the disease before leaving her post to run in the 2020 municipal elections in Paris after Benjamin Griveaux, 42, her colleague in the La Republique En Marche (LREM) party, withdrew from the campaign.
In response to the tweet, one netizen told Buzyn: “Get out of here, we’ve seen enough of your lying, criminal.”
Another commented: “You’d have to ask that lady why her husband is so strongly opposed to Raoult and the chloroquine studies.”
In January, Buzyn classified malaria drug chloroquine, which is being sued to treat come COVID-19 cases in France, as a poisonous substance, according to local media.
Reports say that Forget is known to create controversies in French politics.
In a recent tweet, he said: “All ministers, deputies and senators should unanimously decide on a 20-percent reduction in their allowances for the duration of the period [of confinement] because there are really many French people who are suffering enormously… And 20 percent is still nothing…”.
He added: “We will see what people’s real motivations are…Those who will oppose it are those with very high incomes. I hope the President of the Republic hears what I have to say… True solidarity begins by setting an example.”
According to local media, in March, three representatives of a group of carers filed a complaint against Buzyn and Edouard Philippe, France’s Prime Minister, accusing them of having “voluntarily refrained from taking or provoking measures to combat a disaster likely to create a danger to the safety of persons”.
Buzyn had as Minister of Solidarity and Health from May 2017 to 16th February 2020.
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