French want English language kicked out of Europe after Brexit saying it has ‘no legitimacy’
Britain told to take language with it in ugly EU break-up
THE French want to kick the English language out of the EU after the Brexit vote.
A French mayor has called for Brussels to ditch English after the UK voted to leave the European Union.
English is largely considered the universal language of business and is one of the 24 'official languages' of the EU.
Robert Ménard, the mayor of the southern French town of Béziers, said English no longer has “any legitimacy” and in a bitter swipe has called for EU chiefs to bid adieu to the language.
He even went as far to hint Irish gaelic is more important when someone reminded him Ireland, still an EU member country, speaks English.
Ménard posted in French: “The English language has no more legitimacy in Brussels #Brexit.”
Later he addressed criticism of his comments by posting: “Irish Gaelic , the first national language. English is a second language of the constitutional point of view.”
He has been backed by left-wing presidential candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon who said English can no longer be the “third working language of the European Parliament”.
France has astrained relationship with the English language.
A law in 1994 forced advertisers to only use French in campaigns as it looked to combat an influx of English words.
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The language is protected by laws guraded by owrd police called ‘immortals’.
It also has fixed quotas for the amount of foreign songs on French radio.
According to European news agency The Local, 51 per cent of EU citizens can speak English as a first or second language.
More than a quarter can speak French and nearly a third can speak German.
Despite Brexit, it is unlikely English would be scrapped altogether since it is also the official language of EU members Ireland and Malta.
In 2013, an EU report revealed that English had squeezed out other languages in to become the common tongue of Europe.
It found that English is the most popular foreign language in all but five European countries.
The report also found that two in three people across the continent have at least a fair working knowledge of English.
The report published by Eurostat suggested English was likely to become even more dominant in the future.
It found that 94 per cent of secondary school pupils and 83 per cent of primary age pupils across the EU are learning English as their first foreign language, more than four times as many as learn French, German or Spanish.
Only in Britain and Ireland is French the top foreign language in schools.
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