PARIS — French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau downplayed the severity of President Emmanuel Macron’s furor over the mishandling of a long-anticipated report on the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood’s alleged attempts to “infiltrate” French and European societies.

“I didn’t take it as a reprimand,” Retailleau said Monday when asked about Macron’s angry remarks during a national security council meeting last week. The council met to discuss the 70-plus-page report, which claimed that the “development of Islamist ecosystems [in France]… [threatens] national cohesion.”

During the meeting, Macron reportedly expressed frustration at what he saw as a general lack of adequate solutions proposed by his ministers. The dressing down appeared to be aimed at Retailleau after a copy of the report was leaked to the press before its official publication date, with his office seen as the primary suspect for the leak.

Retailleau, a hardliner on immigration, was recently elected president of France’s main conservative party and is seen as a likely contender for the 2027 presidential election. The conservative’s eagerness to take the lead on the topic drew criticism from experts and religious organizations who deemed the report “alarmist” and feared that Retailleau was seeking to draw political capital from it.

On Monday, speaking after a meeting on “fighting Islamism” held on the outskirts of Paris, Retailleau insisted that the report needed to be made public to raise awareness of the issue.

Shortly after, Macron, who is in Vietnam, was asked about Retailleau’s comment stressing the importance of having the report released. The French president said he was “unhappy” that a “confidential document” had been released before any discussion took place and called it “unprofessional.”

Attempts from Islamist organizations to “infiltrate” society “exist,” but shouldn’t be overblown at the risk of becoming “conspiratorial and paranoid,” Macron added.

The report, scrubbed of certain particularly sensitive information, was eventually released to the public on Friday by the interior ministry.