David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*) writes:

It's a skewed perspective with no basis in the reality of the world
today.

You're entitled to your opinion.

There are cases where non-German native executives would rather you
speak to them in German than English too.

For these executives, French was not their native language.

Extremely popular is meaningless. In the US, for example, which is the
most populous English speaking country in the world, high school
students are now learning Spanish at a rate almost 4 times that of
French.

Spanish has more practical value than French in the U.S., and it's easier to
learn, at least at lower levels and in terms of pronunciation.

In the UK too, learning French as a second language is seen as
less important than it used to be.

But they are still learning mostly French, aren't they?