Last September, Matteo Salvini provocatively compared migrants to slaves. Luxembourg's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean Asselborn, could no longer bear Salvini's inflammatory discourse and put him in his place before uttering an exasperated "merde alors".
The exchange was filmed by the Italian populist and posted on his social media accounts to spread it among his partisans.
Nowadays, the expression allows to collect money for refugees. How? Thanks to the brand Asport that commercialised t-shirts adorned with Asselborn's famous expletive and gives the proceeds of their sales to Sportunity - its association dedicated to helping refugees integrate through sports.
According to the German newspaper Spiegel, €10,000 has already been gathered.
"With the « MERDE ALORS ! » campaign, we want to gather people who share our vision of diverse, solidarity and humanist Europe", wrote the association on their website. "Our country, half of whose inhabitants are foreigners, gives - day in day out - an example of peaceful and enriching diversity."
