"We are not autistic": Labor Minister Jean-Pierre Farandou apologizes

"By using the term autistic, my remarks were hurtful and that was not my intention. I am sincerely sorry and I apologize," the Minister of Labor and Solidarity wrote on the X network.

On Tuesday evening, during his first television interview on France 2's 20 p.m. news, the former SNCF boss deemed the pension reform "necessary." But "the Prime Minister said it, we're not deaf, we're not autistic, we can see that this reform is not going down well, there are reactions, concerns, and discontent being expressed," he said.

This outing caused a reaction on social media from left-wing elected officials and associations defending disabled people.

"Being autistic is not an inability to understand things. It's a neurodevelopmental characteristic, not a lack of intelligence or empathy," Green Party MP Marie-Charlotte Garin stressed on X. "These words hurt, stigmatize, perpetuate stereotypes, and contribute to the exclusion of autistic people; it's ableism," she protested.

"Autism is neither a flaw nor an insult. Words matter, especially when they come from a Minister of Solidarity," criticized Sébastien Peytavie, Génération.s MP for Dordogne.

"It would indeed be good if the Minister of Solidarity avoided using the term 'autistic' indiscriminately!" also criticized the Disabilities collective.

"Saying 'we're not deaf, we're not autistic' isn't clumsy: it's a mistake. Using disability to schematize incomprehension or closure is contemptuous (...). These words reveal a huge lack of disability culture at the highest levels of government and, more broadly, in our society," Florian Deygas, representative of APF France-Handicap in the Landes region, lamented on X.