In a speech hitting out at direct democracy, Emmanuel Macron has claimed Britain was “manipulated” into voting for Brexit by “fake news” during the EU referendum.

Speaking at a town hall meeting in Normandy, the French president greeted news of the British Parliament’s historic defeat of Prime Minister Theresa May’s super-soft Brexit agreement by declaring that “the first losers of [No Deal Brexit] would be the British”.

“It’s a referendum that has been manipulated, manipulated from outside by a lot of what we call fake news, where everything and anything was said,” Macron alleged, claiming pro-Leave politicians “lied to the people” and that what the British voted for in 2016 “is not possible”.

“Good luck to the representatives of the nation who has to implement a thing which doesn’t exist and has to explain to the people: you have voted on a thing, we lied to you,” he told an audience of more than 600 mayors.

Desperate Macron Holds ‘Grand Debate’ to Find Way Out of Yellow Vest Revolt https://t.co/SFqMhmboGe — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 15, 2019

Insisting France had already reached the “maximum” of what the country was willing to offer Britain in negotiations, Macron added that the Brexit vote “says a lot” about the dangers of “[what] referendums — which may seem nice — can create”.

Previously in the event, which lasted more than six and a half hours in total, the globalist French president had spoken dismissively of the Yellow Vest protest movement’s demand for the right to hold Swiss-style citizens’ initiative referendums (RIC) on policy proposals which gather more than 700,000 signatures, telling the audience: “We can make popular decisions by referendum… but not difficult ones.”

Earlier this month, an online national consultation launched in December, following weeks of anti-government protest, was denounced as having been “sabotaged” after it revealed widespread support for conservative policies.

The mainstream media and establishment in France alleged that the initiative must have been “hijacked” when the results showed policies like the repeal of same-sex marriage laws topping the list of proposals.

Yellow Vest Popularity in France Surges as Protests Find New Momentum https://t.co/tvJGT70LrT — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 16, 2019