« We were fighting or joking »: Macron downplayed the footage his wife hits him on the face
French President Emmanuel Macron downplayed an incident on Monday where his wife Brigitte pushed him into his face as the couple arrived in Vietnam to start a tour of Southeast Asia.
In the video, Brigitte Macron seemed to pushed her husband before he got off the presidential plane late on Sunday. This makes him pull away before he recovers and wave on the camera on the track below.
She remains hidden behind the airplane fuselage, and this prevented her from watching her body. The couple, married since 2007, then went down the stairs together, with Brigitte refusing her husband to catch her by the hand. « I was fighting or rather joking with my wife, » Macron told reporters in Hanoi. « It’s nothing. »
Macron warned that this was not the first time in the last weeks in which the contents of his videos were distorted by people he described as « crazy. »
He gave an example a video shared on social networks showed how he removed a crushed white object from a train table while visiting Ukraine. Some social network users have suggested – without providing evidence – that the subject is a bag of cocaine. Macron said he was a handkerchief, and his office accused French’s enemies of spreading fake news.
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Earlier on Monday, an Elysee Palace employee stated about the last video: « This was a time when the president and his wife were relaxing for the last time before the trip began, laughing. It was a moment of closeness. »
Macron’s visit to Vietnam, the first of French president in almost a decade, comes at a time when he seeks to strengthen France’s influence in her former colony.
Vietnam, which has a highly export -oriented economy, has made US discounts in trade negotiations in an attempt to avoid 46% duties. However, Brussels has fears that Vietnam’s efforts to buy more American goods could come to Europe.
US President Donald Trump threatened to impose 50% duties on the European Union imports on Friday, but softened his position two days later, restoring the deadline July for negotiations between Washington and Brussels.
