French President Emmanuel Macron was slapped in the face by a bypass during a visit to southeastern France on Tuesday, the second leg of a nationwide tour.
In images posted on social media and on the BFM news channel, Macron intercepted a man who slapped a 43-year-old boy in the face instead of waving.
Macron’s bodyguards intervened immediately and two people were afterwards arrested, local officials said.
The regional prefecture said in a statement that “the person who tried to slap the president and another person is currently being questioned by gendarmerie.”
The incident in the village of Tain l’Hermitage in the Drome region represents a serious breach of security and supports the curtain for the start of Macron’s visit, which he said was designed “to take the pulse of the country.”
“Around 1:15 pm (1115 GMT), after visiting a high school, the president got in his car and returned because onlookers were calling out to him,” the prefecture said.
“He went to see them and that’s where the incident happened,” he added.
The Center is expected to run for re-election in next year’s presidential election, with police narrowly defeating right-wing leader Marine Le Pen.
About a dozen stops were planned over the next two months, with Macron Cowade seeking to meet with voters in person after more than a year of administration dealing with Covid-19 epidemics.
Shortly before the slap, Macron was asked to comment on recent remarks by far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, who suggested over the weekend that next year’s election would be rigged.
“Democratic life needs calm and respect from everyone, politicians and citizens,” Macron said.
In July last year, Macron and his wife, Brigitte, were verbally abused by a group of protesters during an immediate walk in the Tuileries gardens in central Paris.
“Politics can never be less than violence, verbal aggression, physical aggression,” Prime Minister Jean Castex told parliament after the recent incident.
Macron has made several other visits to the traditional parties of the left and right government since the 2017 election victory.
A trip to 2018 to mark the centenary of the end of World War I is most remembered as France’s youngest post-war leader for its encouraging and hacking scenes of angry citizens.
This was at a time when the “yellow vest” demonstrators were pushing for personal condemnation of the government’s policies and head of state in the style of their leadership, which was criticized and arrogant.
Macron held another tour billed as a listening exercise in 2019 as a result of the protests, which shook the country and saw him promise to change the way he ruled.
