Published on : 06/08/2021 – 15:17

Emmanuel Macron was slapped by a man during a trip to Tain-l’Hermitage, in Drôme, Tuesday, June 8, at midday, confirmed the entourage of the Head of State, attesting to AFP of the authenticity of a video circulating on social networks. Two people were arrested, the prefecture announced shortly after the incident.

In the excerpt posted on Twitter, Emmanuel Macron is seen approaching a group of people massed behind barriers, then exchanging briefly with a man. Seizing the forearm of the president, the individual seems to strike him then on the cheek, the entourage of Emmanuel Macron evoking an “attempted slap”. The head of state continued his visit, said the Elysee.

In the excerpt posted on Twitter, Emmanuel Macron is seen approaching a group of people massed behind barriers, then exchanging briefly with a man. Seizing the forearm of the president, the individual seems to strike him then on the cheek, the entourage of Emmanuel Macron evoking an “attempted slap”. The head of state continued his visit, said the Elysee.

In this same video, just before the slap, is shouted the royalist war cry “Montjoie Saint Denis!”, As well as “Down with macronie”.

Jean Castex calls for “a republican start”

Quickly, political reactions multiplied. From the start of the questions to the government in the National Assembly, the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, spoke to denounce this aggression. “Politics can in no way be violence, verbal aggression, and even less physical aggression. I appeal for a republican start, we are all concerned, it is about the foundations of our democracy”, did he declare.

“This time you begin to understand that the violent take action? I stand in solidarity with the President,” Jean-Luc Mélenchon reacted on Twitter.

“I express all my solidarity with the President of the Republic”, continued the rebellious deputy Eric Coquerel, recalling having “been attacked in 2018 by people who said ‘Montjoie Saint-Denis’, of the French Action”.

“I consider this kind of behavior to be unacceptable” and “deeply condemnable in a democracy”, for her part declared the leader of the National Rally Marine Le Pen. “It is inadmissible to physically attack the President of the Republic, political leaders, but even more the president who is the President”, she insisted, traveling to Laxou, in Meurthe-et-Moselle.

“To slap the President is to slap the Republic. Intolerable, unacceptable”, for his part estimated the boss of the Republican deputies, Damien Abad.

With AFP