French President Emmanuel Macron was slapped across the face by a bystander during a trip to southeast France on Tuesday in a security scare on the second stop of a nationwide tour.
Images on social media and broadcast on the BFM news channel showed Macron approach a barrier to greet voters, where a long-haired man in a green t-shirt took hold of his elbow and then slapped him.
Macron‘s bodyguards quickly intervened and two people were detained afterwards, local officials said.
The incident in the village of Tain-l’Hermitage in the Drome region sparked outrage across the political spectrum and overshadowed the start of Macron‘s tour, which he said was designed to “take the country’s pulse.”
“Politics can never be violence, verbal aggression, much less physical aggression,” Prime Minister Jean Castex told parliament, adding that “through the president, it is democracy that has been targeted.”
Macron continued his trip afterwards, said an aide, who described the incident as an “attempted slap” though video footage appeared to show the man making contact with the president’s face.
On the video of the incident, someone can be heard shouting “Down with Macronism!”
This article was first published by Capital News.
