A man slapped President Emmanuel Macron in the face on Tuesday during a walkabout in southern France. In a video circulating on social media, Macron reached out his hand to greet a man in a small crowd of onlookers standing behind a metal barrier as he visited a professional training college for the hospitality industry.
FRANCE—Video emerges of @EmmanuelMacron slapped in the face, while greeting people during his tour of the #Drôme.
— Bree A Dail (@breeadail) June 8, 2021
Two people reportedly arrested. pic.twitter.com/4mxU7tOrMJ
The man, who was dressed in a khaki T-shirt, then shouted “Down with Macronia” (“A Bas La Macronie”) and slapped Macron on the left side of his face., Two of Macron’s security detail tackled the man in the T-shirt, and another ushered Macron away. Another video posted on Twitter showed that the president, a few seconds later, returned to the line of onlookers and resumed shaking hands. The slogan the man shouted has been co-opted in the past few years by royalists and people on the far-right in France, Fiametta Venner, a political scientist who studies French extremists, told broadcaster BFMTV.
Two people were arrested, a police source told Reuters. The identify of the man who slapped Macron, and his motives, were unclear.
