If you’ve ever wanted to see a world leader legit get belted in the face, then today’s your lucky day. Footage has emerged of French President Emmanuel Macron getting slapped by a disenchanted voter.
The incident occurred in the village of Tain-l’Hermitage during Macron’s tour of the nation (a tour de France, if you will). As you’d imagine, the dude responsible was immediately tackled by a squad of bodyguards while Macron appeared to walk away with little more than a flushed cheek.
“We mustn’t let ultra-violent individuals take over the public debate,” Macron said afterwards, bravely fronting the media after his ordeal.
“There can be no violence, no hatred, not in speech or action. Otherwise it’s democracy itself that is threatened.”
#Macron se fait gifler en direct de #Tain pic.twitter.com/tsXdByo22U
— Alex ⚜️ (@AlexpLille) June 8, 2021
Obviously, all violence must be condemned, blah, blah, blah.
To that end, pretty much all major French political leaders (and even Macron’s sworn adversaries) came out in his defense, condemning the man who dared raise his hand against Monsieur President.
Radio France Internationale reports that the man who slapped the president, plus one other supposed accomplice, were taken for questioning by the gendarmerie.
Interestingly, the regional prefecture in a statement referred to the culprit as “the man who tried to slap the president” rather than “the man who slapped the president.” The video doesn’t lie – there sure is some interesting spin going on over there.
To give you an idea of what French politics is like at the moment, the centrist and deeply-unpopular Macron is expected to seek reelection next year, and his main rival is Marine Le Pen, the head of the main far-right party in France. Macron is leading in the polls… barely.
Anyway, Macron himself appears to be fine after the incident, so the main takeaway from all of this is a twitter video which has now clocked over nine million views.
It’s not hard to see why. This one’s for Algeria.
