President Emmanuel Macron Slapped During Visit To Southeast France

A bystander slapped French President Emmanuel Macron across the
face during a trip to southeast France on Tuesday on the second
stop of a nation-wide tour.

Images on social media and broadcast on the BFM news channel
showed Macron approach a barrier to greet a man who, instead of
shaking hands, slapped the 43-year-old across the face.

Macron’s bodyguards quickly intervened and two people were
arrested afterwards, local officials said.

“The man who tried to slap the president and another individual
are currently being questioned by the gendarmerie,” the regional
prefecture said in a statement.

The incident in the village of Tain-l’Hermitage in the Drome
region represents a serious security breach and overshadows the
start of Macron’s tour which he said was designed to “take the
country’s pulse.”

“Around 1:15 pm (1115 GMT), the president got back into his car
after visiting a high school and came back out because onlookers
were calling out to him,” the prefecture said.

“He went to meet them and that’s where the incident happened,”
it added.

The centrist is widely expected to seek re-election in next
year’s presidential elections and polls show him with a narrow lead
over far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Around a dozen stops had been planned over the next two months,
with Macron keen to meet voters in person after more than a year of
crisis management linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.

‘Never violence’

Shortly before being slapped, Macron had been asked to comment
on recent remarks from far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon who
suggested at the weekend that next year’s election would be
manipulated.

“Democratic life needs calm and respect, from everyone,
politicians as well as citizens,” Macron said.

In July last year, Macron and his wife Brigitte were verbally
abused by a group of protesters while taking an impromptu walk
through the Tuileries gardens in central Paris.

“Politics can never be violence, verbal aggression, much less
physical aggression,” Prime Minister Jean Castex told parliament
after the latest incident.

Macron has undertaken several other tours since his 2017
electoral triumph over the traditional parties of government on the
left and right.

A 2018 trip to mark the centenary of the end of World War I is
best remembered for the scenes of furious citizens booing and
heckling France’s youngest post-war leader.

It took place just as “yellow vest” protests were gathering
momentum to denounce the government’s policies and the head of
state personally for his leadership style, which was criticised as
aloof and arrogant.

Macron conducted another tour billed as a listening exercise in
2019 in the aftermath of those protests, which shook the country
and saw him promise to change his way of governing.

A bystander slapped French President Emmanuel Macron across the
face during a trip to southeast France on Tuesday on the second
stop of a nation-wide tour.

Images on social media and broadcast on the BFM news channel
showed Macron approach a barrier to greet a man who, instead of
shaking hands, slapped the 43-year-old across the face.

Macron’s bodyguards quickly intervened and two people were
arrested afterwards, local officials said.

“The man who tried to slap the president and another individual
are currently being questioned by the gendarmerie,” the regional
prefecture said in a statement.

The incident in the village of Tain-l’Hermitage in the Drome
region represents a serious security breach and overshadows the
start of Macron’s tour which he said was designed to “take the
country’s pulse.”

“Around 1:15 pm (1115 GMT), the president got back into his car
after visiting a high school and came back out because onlookers
were calling out to him,” the prefecture said.

“He went to meet them and that’s where the incident happened,”
it added.

The centrist is widely expected to seek re-election in next
year’s presidential elections and polls show him with a narrow lead
over far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Around a dozen stops had been planned over the next two months,
with Macron keen to meet voters in person after more than a year of
crisis management linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.

‘Never violence’

Shortly before being slapped, Macron had been asked to comment
on recent remarks from far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon who
suggested at the weekend that next year’s election would be
manipulated.

“Democratic life needs calm and respect, from everyone,
politicians as well as citizens,” Macron said.

In July last year, Macron and his wife Brigitte were verbally
abused by a group of protesters while taking an impromptu walk
through the Tuileries gardens in central Paris.

“Politics can never be violence, verbal aggression, much less
physical aggression,” Prime Minister Jean Castex told parliament
after the latest incident.

Macron has undertaken several other tours since his 2017
electoral triumph over the traditional parties of government on the
left and right.

A 2018 trip to mark the centenary of the end of World War I is
best remembered for the scenes of furious citizens booing and
heckling France’s youngest post-war leader.

It took place just as “yellow vest” protests were gathering
momentum to denounce the government’s policies and the head of
state personally for his leadership style, which was criticised as
aloof and arrogant.

Macron conducted another tour billed as a listening exercise in
2019 in the aftermath of those protests, which shook the country
and saw him promise to change his way of governing.