Spanish
Vietnam.- It was a "joke" the supposed slap that the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, received from his wife Brigitte Macron, upon landing at Hanoi airport (Vietnam), as announced by the president in his first statements after the event.
"My wife and I were joking, as we usually do (...) For three weeks, there have been people who have watched videos and believe that I shared a bag of cocaine, that I had a one-on-one with a Turkish president and that I now have a domestic dispute with my wife. None of this is true," the president has assured.
Prior to these statements, the Élysée Palace had reacted to the viral episode by indicating that it was "a moment of complicity" between the spouses.
The moment was captured on camera by the American agency Associated Press (AP) and has generated international uproar. In the recording, it gives the impression of being a physical assault, reproaching something.
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The video shows how the first lady's hand hits her husband in the face, specifically in the mouth area.
What gives him away is Emmanuel Macron's surprised face when he sees that they are being recorded. Immediately afterwards, the French president composes himself and greets, as if nothing is happening. The presidential couple then descended the plane's steps, Macron offers his arm to his wife, as he usually does, but she doesn't take it and holds onto the handrail of the walkway.
