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HomeGlobal NewsPresident of France Emmanuel Macron slapped in the face

President of France Emmanuel Macron slapped in the face

Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, has been slapped in the face during an official visit to the south-east of his country of France

Within a video that has been circulating on social media platforms, Mr Macron is seen walking up to a barrier on an official visit to Tain-l’Hermitage outside of the city of Valence.

A man wearing a green T-shirt slaps Mr Macron in the face before police officers quickly move in to restrain the man, as the president is pulled away.

Two men have since been arrested following the incident, French media report.

The man had reportedly shouted “Down with Macron-ism” as he slapped the French president.

In the video President Macron briefly returned to the barrier after the incident and once again interacted with the crowd.

This comes after a number of major websites, including the UK’s official government website, have been hit by an outage at global website hosting service Fastly. For around an hour this morning, those logging into to gov.uk, as well as a raft of other sites, were faced with a message saying “503 Service Unavailable” or similar.

As yet the identity and motive for the slapping are unclear. The local prefecture said that he and another individual are being questioned by the gendarmerie, in a statement that was first reported by the AFP news agency.

Police officers were out in force on the streets of Valence shortly following the slapping incident, according to one tweet from a French journalist.

Politicians in the country have swiftly denounced the incident.

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Prime Minister of France, Jean Castex, said to the National Assembly shortly afterwards that while it remained that democracy meant both debate and legitimate disagreement “it must never in any case mean violence, verbal aggression and even less physical attack”.

Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon also tweeted his “solidarity with the president” immediately following the incident.

And Marine Le Pen, a far-right leader within the country, posted her own condemnation of the violence, saying that “while democratic debate can be bitter, it can never tolerate physical violence”.

This comes after the trade union Prospect is now calling for the UK government to give employees a legally binding “right to disconnect”, with many of its members warning that their mental health is being compromised.

President Macron is currently on a tour of France and had just visited a hotel school in Tain-l’Hermitage. His visit to the area was set to continue on Tuesday, officials said, with a trip to a vocational institute for 25-30 year-olds.

The president’s visit comes on the eve of a major step for French bars and restaurants, which will be able to reopen to indoor customers after seven months of closure. France’s overnight curfew is also being pushed back from 21:00 to 23:00 on Wednesday.

“Tomorrow, a new step will be taken,” Mr Macron tweeted after his visit to the hotel school.

“Life will resume in all our territories!”

Eve Cooper
Eve Cooper
I've been writing articles and stories for as long as I can remember and in the past few years I've had the fortune of turning that love & passion for writing into my job :)

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