 In response to the Greek government-debt crisis he asked the European Commission to put unused structural funds towards helping the Greek economy return to growth and said "We waited too long before helping Greece.This has been going on for two years now and only gets worse..."

Ayrault's appointment to the country's head of government prompted discussion within Arabic language mass media as to how to pronounce his surname.When his name is pronounced properly in French, it sounds "very much like a moderately rude Lebanese [slang] term" for a phallus.