Sharjah24 – AFP: French President Emmanuel Macron was slapped in the face while greeting a crowd in southeast France on Tuesday, in a shock incident he shrugged off as "isolated" but which drew widespread condemnation in a tense political climate.
Video footage on social media shows Macron shaking hands with voters when a man in a green t-shirt takes hold of his forearm and slaps him.
Someone can be heard in the video shouting an old French royalist battle cry, and "Down with Macronism".
Macron's bodyguards quickly intervened and two people were detained after the incident in the village of Tain l'Hermitage, local officials said.
Two 28-year-old men living in the region are being questioned, said local prosecutor Alex Perrin. But "at this stage of questioning, their motives remain unknown".
The incident took place in a tense and increasingly polarised political climate in France, weeks ahead of regional elections and less than a year before presidential polls.
In an interview with the Dauphine Libere newspaper, Macron insisted he was unafraid and would continue to meet people in this way.
"I am doing fine. We must put this incident, which I think is an isolated event, into perspective," he said.
He added that "ultra-violent individuals" should not be allowed to "take hold of the public debate: they do not merit it."
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