Macron accused of 'U-turn' over Maduro encounter

The one-and-a-half-minute handshake and chat on the sidelines of the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh on November 7 may have been brief, but they were a stark contrast to previous comments by Macron, who in 2019 had described Maduro as "illegitimate," France24 said, Report informs.

The leader of France's ultra-left wing France Unbowed party (LFI) Jean-Luc Melenchon, a longtime admirer of Venezuela under Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez, tweeted that the "need for oil makes people polite."

"Macron's Big U-turn on Maduro's Venezuela," commented France's left-wing daily Liberation.