Albion
02-03-2012, 07:57 PM
Mr Morin, who heads the centrist Nouveau Centre party, is a rank outsider for April's presidential elections, polling less than one per cent, is 50 years old.
In a campaign speech over the weekend in Nice, southern France, he made the audacious claim.
"You, some of you, with white hair, you saw nearby the landings in Provence ... I, who saw the Allied landings in Normandy, we have lived through things much more difficult that what we have to go through today," he claimed.
His comments were immediately seized upon by the internet community.
"For a man born in 1961 to take part in the Allied landings of 1944 is a great achievement," wrote Voici.fr.
His Wikipedia profile was instantly updated to describe him as a "pioneer of time travel" following his curious D-Day claim.
Internet jesters quickly homed in on the nickname of Morin McFly, after Marty McFly, the hero of the 1980s time travelling film Back to the Future starring Michael J Fox.
It spawned a raft of internet parodies. "I was there at the Big Bang, it was overrated," wrote one.
"I was in Rouen when Joan of Arc was burned," claimed a second.
"You should have seen the Trojans' face when the Greeks came out of that horse," said a third.
Faced with the deluge of ridicule, Mr Morin stood by his remark today, saying it wasn't a mistake but a semantic "shortcut".
"It wasn't a blunder at all but simply a shortcut to something deeply anchored in the eye of every Norman. It's our DNA, our genetic code," he told RMC radio.
"I was brought up with the white crosses of Canadian and American soldiers in the (war) cemeteries, of these children who died for our freedom and thus it's a part of our common history, that's all," he said.
Taking the jokes at his expense on the chin, he wrote on Twitter: "Well done for your humour! I always said the French were full of creative talent!"
Mr Morin has little to laugh about from a political perspective, however, as two key party allies deserted him on Wednesday to come out in support of Nicolas Sarkozy, the incumbent conservative.
Mr Morin dismissed calls for him to throw in the towel.
"I intend to go all the way," he said, predicting he would "not stay on one per cent".
Source... (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/world-war-2/9038433/Time-travelling-French-presidential-candidate-ridiculed-for-Normandy-claims.html)
In a campaign speech over the weekend in Nice, southern France, he made the audacious claim.
"You, some of you, with white hair, you saw nearby the landings in Provence ... I, who saw the Allied landings in Normandy, we have lived through things much more difficult that what we have to go through today," he claimed.
His comments were immediately seized upon by the internet community.
"For a man born in 1961 to take part in the Allied landings of 1944 is a great achievement," wrote Voici.fr.
His Wikipedia profile was instantly updated to describe him as a "pioneer of time travel" following his curious D-Day claim.
Internet jesters quickly homed in on the nickname of Morin McFly, after Marty McFly, the hero of the 1980s time travelling film Back to the Future starring Michael J Fox.
It spawned a raft of internet parodies. "I was there at the Big Bang, it was overrated," wrote one.
"I was in Rouen when Joan of Arc was burned," claimed a second.
"You should have seen the Trojans' face when the Greeks came out of that horse," said a third.
Faced with the deluge of ridicule, Mr Morin stood by his remark today, saying it wasn't a mistake but a semantic "shortcut".
"It wasn't a blunder at all but simply a shortcut to something deeply anchored in the eye of every Norman. It's our DNA, our genetic code," he told RMC radio.
"I was brought up with the white crosses of Canadian and American soldiers in the (war) cemeteries, of these children who died for our freedom and thus it's a part of our common history, that's all," he said.
Taking the jokes at his expense on the chin, he wrote on Twitter: "Well done for your humour! I always said the French were full of creative talent!"
Mr Morin has little to laugh about from a political perspective, however, as two key party allies deserted him on Wednesday to come out in support of Nicolas Sarkozy, the incumbent conservative.
Mr Morin dismissed calls for him to throw in the towel.
"I intend to go all the way," he said, predicting he would "not stay on one per cent".
Source... (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/world-war-2/9038433/Time-travelling-French-presidential-candidate-ridiculed-for-Normandy-claims.html)