The man who slapped French President Emmanuel Macron will serve four months in jail.
On Tuesday, Macron interacted with citizens as he paid a visit to southeastern France. As he approached the crowd, a man wearing glasses, a face mask, and a green t-shirt slapped the 43-year-old chief executive across the face.
FRANCE—Video emerges of @EmmanuelMacron slapped in the face, while greeting people during his tour of the #Drôme.
Two people reportedly arrested. pic.twitter.com/4mxU7tOrMJ
— Bree A Dail (@breeadail) June 8, 2021
Officers from the Security Group for the Presidency of the Republic seized the man and took him into custody.
Citing French network BFMTV, Reuters today reports:
Damien Tarel, 28, an unemployed fan of medieval swordsmanship who said he is a right-wing sympathiser, attacked Macron when the French president was shaking hands with members of the public during a walkabout on Tuesday.
The court gave Tarel a sentence of 18 months in jail, but 14 of those months were suspended, the broadcaster reported.
Earlier, Tarel told the court in Valence in southern France, that he acted because the president stood for all that was rotten with France, the news channel said.
Along with “Montjoie, Saint-Denis” — the motto of the Kingdom of France — the man shouted “Down with Macron-ism” as he slapped the President.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex condemned the incident on social media. “Democracy is debate, dialogue, the confrontation of ideas, but it will never be violence, verbal aggression and even less physical,” read a translation of his tweet.