|
"Are you serious, responding like this???," Paris mayor Anne
Hidalgo tweeted. "Wake up guys???"
Quizzed on PSG's jet trip to Nantes at a news conference on
Monday, Galtier and Mbappe looked at each other and the World
Cup winner burst out laughing as his coach responded with a
quip.
"This morning we talked about it with the company which
organises our trips and we're looking into travelling on sand
yachts," Galtier said. Asked for his views on the matter, Mbappe
said he did not have any.
A video of their comments immediately went viral, triggering
angry responses from social media users, environmentalists and
ministers.
Photoshopped memes of Mbappe and Galtier on sand yachts could be
seen across social media and the controversy occupied the top
three tending topics on Twitter in France on Tuesday.
Galtier later labelled his joke as one of "bad taste".
"I think humour is important but obviously it was bad taste,"
Galtier told reporters after PSG's 2-1 win in the Champions
League against Juventus on Tuesday.
"I just want to stress that here at PSG we are not disconnected
and that we take the climate change questions very seriously.
We're not careless."
A source within the club told Reuters that Galtier's annoyance
stemmed from the fact that PSG have been negotiating with French
train operator SNCF for six months but the company has refused
to organise night trains for return trips after matches.
The controversy started on Sunday when a senior SNCF official
tweeted https://twitter.com/alainkrakovitch/status/
1566417338722930690?s=20&t=k2MagVuKJDKACWjb0LCDzQ: "Paris-Nantes
is less than two hours by TGV (high speed train). I renew my
proposal of a TGV offer adapted to your specifications, for our
common interest: security, speed, services and eco-mobility."
The use of private jets has been a much-discussed topic both in
France and globally this summer, with social media users
tracking - and criticising - their use amid a series of
heatwaves, droughts and floods triggered by climate change.
"I love Mbappe, we can all have the giggles at the least
opportune moment and it really was the least opportune moment,"
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told BFM TV on Tuesday.
"But we all have to take climate change seriously," he said,
adding that Galtier's irony had been "out of place".
(Reporting by Ingrid Melander and Julien Pretot, editing by Ed
Osmond and Christian Radnedge)
[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
|
