Macron shoved in face during ‘squabble’ with wife Brigitte

[Pelican Press 0]

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Macron shoved in face during ‘squabble’ with wife Brigitte

Credit: Reuters

Emmanuel Macron has been filmed being shoved in the face by

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after the couple landed in Vietnam.

The footage, shot by the Associated Press news agency in Hanoi on Sunday evening, showed the French president standing alone as the plane’s door opened.

Suddenly, the arms of his wife, who was off-camera, can be seen through the doorway emerging from the left, before she pushes him strongly in the face with both hands.

Mr Macron appeared taken aback, but then swiftly regained his composure and turned to wave through the open door.

Moments later, the couple walked down the plane’s staircase for an official welcome by Vietnamese officials, though Mrs Macron, dressed in red, did not take her husband’s offered arm.

Footage of the incident, along with photographs of Mr Macron appearing to look stern and angry in the aftermath, quickly spread on social media sites.

The Elysée Palace initially denied the authenticity of the images, claiming they were AI-generated by accounts hostile to the centrist French head of state, before finally conceding they were genuine.

Source claims couple were ‘joking around’

A close associate of the president later described the incident as a couple’s harmless “squabble”.

Meanwhile, another member of Mr Macron’s entourage downplayed its significance by insisting it was a “moment of togetherness”.

“It was a moment when

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were decompressing one last time after a 16-hour journey before the start of the trip by joking around,” the source told reporters.

“It’s a moment of togetherness. No more was needed to feed the mills of the conspiracy theorists,” the source added, blaming pro-Russian accounts for negative comments about the incident.

“There was obviously no violent gesture between Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron. To say the opposite – based on a very partial, fleeting image, without sound and without context – is dishonest and shows a serious lack of understanding of them.”

Mrs and Mr Macron, pictured with the US president and his wife, will spend nearly a week together visiting Southeast Asia – JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

Vietnam is the first stop on an almost week-long tour of Southeast Asia by the French president. During the trip, it is expected he will pitch France as a “third way” between the US and China in the region. He will also visit Indonesia and Singapore.

Vietnam is facing significant levies on exports to the US, while it is also

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, another important trade partner, over territories in the South China Sea.

An aide to Mr Macron said his “Indo-Pacific strategy” had gained new relevance because of

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.

He said the French president was “defending the idea of international trade rules – we don’t want a jungle where the law of the strongest prevails”.

Meanwhile, Vietnam has adopted a “

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” approach of seeking strength through flexibility and attempting to stay on good terms with the world’s major powers.

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