Genevieve Legay, a 73-year-old anti-globalisation activist and grandmother, suffered a fractured skull on Saturday after riot police stormed anti-government demonstrators.
Macron told the Nice-Matin newspaper that he wished that Legay had aquired “a degree of wisdom” because “when one is fragile and risks being shoved, one does not go to places that are declared off-limits and one does not put oneself in a situation like that”.
Legay’s family meanwhile accused police of using excessive force against the protesters and filed a legal complaint against the authorities.
“Mr Macron, our Genevieve of Nice does not need your lessons in wisdom. You could learn a lot from her. She stands up for the common good. And you, in the name of what are you assaulting her?” France’s firebrand leader Jean-Luc Melenchon tweeted.
National Rally spokesman Sebastien Chenu, said it was once again evident that Macron “doesn’t like the French”.
Before Legay was injured, she was filmed saying: “I’m 73 years old, what can happen to me? I’m fighting for my grandchildren, I’ve been campaigning for 50 years”. The video of her interview was widely shared on social media.
Macron has repeatedly showed his arrogant, dismissive attitude towards ordinary people who complain about making ends meet.
Last year he told an unemployed gardener who had sent out hundreds of job applications that he only had to “cross the road” to find a job.
He also told elderly citizens to complain less, and described protesters against his reforms to the labour code as “slackers”.
Several associations and political parties, as well as citizens and Yellow Vests protested in front of the prefecture of Grenoble on Wednesday, March 27, 2019 to support Legay, and denounced police violence of the Macronian regime.