Élysée Palace now appears to be on-message surrounding the bizarre video of the French president getting shoved in the face by his wife after touching down in Vietnam.
Video journalists reporting on the Monday arrival of President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte to Hanoi airport captured the shocking moment when the world leader was clearly struck on the face before deplaning.
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Initial responses from Élysée Palace haphazardly disputed the reports, alleging everything from conspiracy theories to manufactured video.
Now, Macron and his team acknowledge the authenticity of the videos but claim that false narratives have been attached to a “relaxing” moment.
“So you see a video that shows me squabbling and joking around with my wife, and I’m surprised [that the moment] becomes a sort of disaster of planetary proportion [in the press], with everyone having their own theory about it,” he told reporters in Hanoi on Tuesday.
Macron compared the moment to other conspiracy theories, such as accusations he snorted cocaine with the German chancellor and British prime minister on a train, and dismissed suggestions that his frantic look on the airplane following the shove portrayed interpersonal troubles.
He notably asserted that “sometimes people tamper with” video footage, “attributing all kinds of nonsense to them.”
“There are people who have watched videos and think I shared a bag of cocaine, that I had a fight with the Turkish president, and that now I’m having a domestic dispute with my wife,” said Macron. “None of these are true.”
Disinformation and fake news are recurring complaints of Macron, who regularly accuses enemy nations of sowing discord in the French press to destabilize the nation.
Élysée Palace has fallen in line with Macron’s characterization of the incident, describing it as a “laugh” between two spouses before a serious state engagement.
Once again, the specter of “conspiracy theories” was floated while simultaneously affirming the authenticity of the footage.
“It was a moment when the president and his wife were relaxing one last time before the start of the trip by having a laugh,” an Elysée aide told various outlets. “It’s a moment of complicity. It was all that was needed to give ammunition to the conspiracy theorists.”
Following the incident, an insider told state radio station France Info that the palace “ballsed up” by floating the idea of fake images, according to the Daily Telegraph.
MACRON RESPONDS TO ‘DISINFORMATION’ SPREAD BY VIRAL VIDEO
Another said such moments require immediate and clear explanations, or “it turns into the conspiracy theory sphere — we’re in a world where there’s a need for clarity so as not to let crazy stuff flourish.”
The shove and Macron’s uncomfortable facial expressions continue to be picked apart in the international press, but the Macrons have appeared arm-in-arm for multiple events following the moment.