Erdogan says Macron needs ‘mental checks’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday slammed his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, over his policies toward Muslims, saying that he needed “mental checks.”

“What can one say about a head of state who treats millions of members from different faith groups this way: first of all, have mental checks,” Erdogan said in a televised address.

Macron’s proposal to defend his country’s secular values against radical Islam has angered the Turkish government, adding to a growing list of disputes between the French leader and Erdogan.

Macron this month described Islam as a religion “in crisis” worldwide and said the government would present a bill in December to strengthen a 1905 law that officially separated church and state in France.

He announced stricter oversight of schooling and better control over foreign funding of mosques.