First Lady Brigitte slapping Emmanuel Macron ? A video filmed by the Associated Press upon the arrival of the French presidential plane in Vietnam, for the start of a series of visits planned in Southeast Asia, which is making the rounds on the web, attests to this.
An argument that the Elysée immediately denied: "Just a moment to vent between the president and his wife before starting the visit."
The images show the plane's door open on the runway in Hanoi and Macron appearing to get off. Then, the president turns inward, then Brigitte's two arms appear and reach the president's face . Were they arguing? A moment of "complicity"? A real slap? Social media have not skimped on possible hypotheses, also interpreting Macron's rather surprised expression after Brigitte's gesture, even if the president then promptly turns toward the exit and makes a greeting gesture outward.
At that point, the couple begins to descend the ladder, and the head of state extends his arm to his wife as he usually does. Only this time Brigitte does not take her husband's arm but holds on to the railing of the ladder.
The Elysée, faced with the amount of relaunches and comments on the video, first denied that it was authentic. Then, once the veracity was ascertained, an aide to the president spoke of a "bickering" between the couple, in which "the president and his wife were letting off steam one last time before the start of the official trip".
In short, officially "a moment of complicity" which however "was more than enough to give breath to the usual conspiracy theorists", the official comment.
(Online Union)