In a seize taken from video, France’s President Emmanuel Macron is shoved whereas getting ready to disembark a airplane in Hanoi, Vietnam on Sunday.
Hau Dinh/AP
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Hau Dinh/AP
French President Emmanuel Macron is downplaying a viral video that seems to indicate his spouse shoving him within the face, describing it as a part of a latest disinformation marketing campaign towards him.
The footage, filmed by the Related Press on Sunday, reveals Macron standing within the open doorway of his airplane after touching down in Hanoi, Vietnam. He appears to be speaking to somebody when a pair of red-sleeved arms reaches out and pushes him within the face.
Macron briefly seems startled, takes a step again, and rapidly turns to wave on the cameras. French first woman Brigitte Macron, carrying a purple jacket, emerges behind him they usually stroll down the steps facet by facet. Macron seems to supply her his arm, which she doesn’t settle for.
Because the footage circulated, French media reported that the Élysée Palace, Macron’s workplace, initially dismissed it because the product of synthetic intelligence. However on Monday, they confirmed the authenticity of the video.
“It was a second when the president and his spouse had been stress-free one final time earlier than the beginning of the journey by having amusing,” the Élysée mentioned, based on Reuters. “It was a second of closeness.”
The Macrons’ marriage has lengthy been a topic of controversy.
Macron fell in love along with his highschool drama instructor, Brigitte Auzière, when he was simply 15 years previous. She was 24 years older and married with three youngsters. Regardless of Macron’s dad and mom sending him away to Paris to complete college, he stored in shut contact with Auzière and vowed to marry her at some point — which he did in 2007.
Macron, whose go to to Vietnam kicks off a week-long tour of Southeast Asia, advised reporters on Monday that the video had merely captured him “squabbling and, somewhat, joking with my spouse.”
“I am shocked by it, it turns into some type of world disaster the place individuals are even arising with theories to clarify it,” he mentioned, in accordance to a translation from the New York Instances. “It is nonsense.”
Darren Linvill, co-director of the Media Forensics Hub at Clemson College, advised NPR that it isn’t shocking {that a} video exhibiting a world chief in such a place would go viral — or that it could be used to advertise a sure agenda.
“In immediately’s digital setting, I believe it isn’t a query of whether or not it goes viral, it is to what ends individuals need to use that video for,” he mentioned. On this case, Macron — and different disinformation consultants — say Russia is seizing the second to attempt to make him look weak.
It is not the primary Macron video to go viral lately
This isn’t the primary time a video of Macron has gone viral. He famous that though the airplane video is actual, the general public interpretation of it’s incorrect — and known as it one other instance of on-line disinformation aimed toward undermining him in latest weeks.
Earlier this month, a video of Macron assembly with the German and British leaders on a practice to Kyiv made headlines when some social media customers speculated {that a} tissue mendacity on the desk was really a bag of cocaine.
The Élysée debunked these rumors in a put up on social media, saying they’d been unfold by France’s enemies at residence and overseas.
“When European unity turns into inconvenient, disinformation goes as far as to make a easy tissue seem like medicine,” it wrote.
When European unity turns into inconvenient, disinformation goes as far as to make a easy tissue seem like medicine.
This pretend information is being unfold by France’s enemies, each overseas and at residence. We should stay vigilant towards manipulation. pic.twitter.com/xyXhGm9Dsr
— Élysée (@Elysee) Could 11, 2025
Days later, one other second drew consideration when a lingering handshake between Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a summit in Albania moist viral.
Video footage confirmed Erdogan holding on to Macron’s center finger for over 10 seconds earlier than finally letting go as they each laughed.
Viewers speculated whether or not this was a blunder, energy play or one thing else. Macron reassured reporters on Monday that, like the opposite latest incidents, it was innocent.
“It has been three weeks — in case you take a look at the worldwide agenda of the president of the French Republic, from Kyiv to Tirana to Hanoi, there are individuals who have watched the movies and imagine that I shared a bag of cocaine, that I had a ‘mano a mano’ with a Turkish president and that proper now I am having a struggle with my spouse,” he mentioned. “None of that is true.”
Macron — and consultants — blame Russia
Macron particularly denounced “networks which might be fairly well-traceable,” because the AFP interprets, together with French extremists and “the Russians.”
The airplane video appears to have been amplified on-line by Russian social media accounts, together with at the least one Kremlin official.
Russian International Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram that Macron had obtained a “proper hook from his spouse,” based on AFP, and speculated that his workplace would possibly blame Russia by means of clarification.
“Possibly it was the ‘hand of the Kremlin’?” she wrote.
Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of worldwide affairs at The New Faculty, tells NPR that the video went viral in Russia considerably as a result of it contradicts Macron’s public picture of toughness — generally (keep in mind these 2024 boxing pictures?) and in the direction of Russia particularly (who has spoken in latest months about European international locations sending troops to Ukraine).
Macron positions himself as “an enormous confrontation” to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Khrushcheva explains, particularly since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“Macron acts as if he is very macho, however take a look at him, it is all a efficiency … as a result of he is been crushed by the spouse,” she says, explaining the Russian perspective. “So on this sense, after all it obtained viral and have become kind of a joke for the Russians … like ‘He is robust on Russia? Have a look at this, he isn’t even robust on his spouse.'”
Linvill, of Clemson, says that whereas pro-Russian voices could body the video as a joke, they’re really sending a “very severe message.” He says they are going to use this video — and related content material — to attempt to painting Macron as silly or powerless.
“Something they will do to chip away on the widespread notion of him as this sturdy chief, they will benefit from that,” he says, including that such characterizations additionally bolster Putin’s home picture by making him look extra competent when in comparison with Macron.
Linvill says it is commonplace for Russia to focus on Western leaders on this means, however Macron’s prominence and his advocacy position in NATO make him “goal primary.” Each second Macron and his workforce should spend defending towards these sorts of assaults, Linvill says, is a second that’s “retaining them away from retaining the West collectively.”
“I believe we’re seeing a change in what has been a long time of a establishment that favored the West, and Russia and China and different international locations that stand in opposition to the West and to NATO wish to chip away at what stays of these traditions and people requirements,” he says.
“And these incremental assaults on leaders like Macron — who’re attempting to place their finger within the dam, because it had been, and maintain the West collectively — these assaults are going to proceed and they will proceed to work to undermine his legitimacy.”
NPR’s Jaclyn Diaz contributed reporting.
