A man slapped the French President, Emmanuel Macron, during a visit to the town of Tain-l’Hermitage, in the Drôme department, in the southeast of the country, a gesture condemned by the political class of a country increasingly tense to as the 2022 presidential election approaches.
Macron said the slap was an “isolated” incident perpetrated by “ultraviolent individuals.”
According to a video of the incident posted on Twitter, Macron approaches a group of people posted behind fences and talks to a man dressed in a khaki shirt, who grabs his forearm and appears to slap him.
The president’s environment evoked “an attempted slap.” Elíseo limited itself to confirming that “a man tried to hit him,” although the video gives the impression that he does touch him, and pointed out that they will not make any further comments about it. Although he did specify that Macron’s exchanges with the people continued after what happened.
In the same video, shortly before the event, the monarchist war cry “Montjoie Saint Denis!” and also “Down with the macronía!”.
Two of the members of Macron’s security device charged the attacker, while another took the president, who stood near the crowd for a brief moment, pointing to someone on the other side of the barriers before his security agents they will push it away.
Two 28-year-old men, without a criminal record, were arrested, said the prosecutor Alex Perrin, who assured that their motivations are unknown at the moment.
“At about 1:15 pm (6:15 pm Mexico City time), the president had gotten into his car after visiting a high school and got out because the people present were calling him. produced the incident “, specified the prefecture of the Drôme.
The identity of the attacker or the reasons that led him to beat the president was not immediately clear.
The head of state was in the area on the second stage of a mini-tour he is doing in France to “take the pulse” of the country, in his own words, in the same month as the regional elections, which will be held on 20 and June 27, already one year into the presidential elections.
It is not the first time that one of his direct encounters with the population ends with incidents.
In March 2017, when he was still a presidential candidate, he was hit by an egg on a visit to the Paris Agriculture Show, and in June in June 2016, as Minister of the Economy of the socialist François Hollande, a group of trade unionists made the same in Montreuil, on the outskirts of the capital.
A tense atmosphere in France
The reaction of the political class was not long in showing its condemnation for this altercation today.
Among them, the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, who spoke in the National Assembly: “Democracy is debate, dialogue, confrontation, expression of legitimate disagreements, but it cannot be in any case violence, verbal aggression and much less physical aggression” , He said.
Opposition leaders also condemned the attack. The radical left candidate for the presidency, deputy Jean-Luc Mélenchon wrote on Twitter: “Are you beginning to understand this time that violence is happening? I sympathize with the president,” said the leader of La Francia Insoumise.
Mélenchon had been at the center of controversy these days by assuring in a television program that in the last week of the presidential campaign there was going to be “a serious incident or a murder.”
His statement was quickly criticized and Macron himself made a call for calm on Tuesday, noting that “democratic life needs tranquility and respect from everyone, both from political leaders and citizens.”
The candidate from France Insoumise denounced a “manipulation” of his words and tried to divert attention to a video of a ‘youtuber’ – later removed – that simulates the murder of a member of his party.
“It is inadmissible to physically attack the president of the Republic, political leaders, but even more so the president,” declared Marine Le Pen, a far-right candidate.
Physical attacks on presidents are rare in France.
The most serious in recent decades dates back to 2002 when a far-right militant tried to shoot Jacques Chirac to death during the military parade on July 14.
With information from AFP, EFE and Reuters
