Emmanuel Macron and wife Brigitte all smiles and hand holding as they board plane after shove video
The difference between the images is stark: on Sunday Emmanuel Macron’s face was being shoved by his wife Brigitte as the pair prepared to leave an airplane that had just landed in Vietnam.
The apparent altercation – and the French president’s reaction to it – was caught on camera for the world to see.
But on Tuesday the pair were all smiles as they boarded the steps to the same flight leaving Vietnam as part of their six-day tour of Southeast Asia.
Offering a picture of unity, the married couple with a 25-year age gap was seen holding hands after waving from the boarding staircase. Ms Macron, 72, wore a cream-coloured pin-stripe suit as she stood next to her 47 year-old husband.
On Monday, in the middle of an overseas trip aimed at developing relations between France and Europe, Mr Macron had been forced to dismiss speculation of a spat spilling into the public eye.
Footage from the Macrons’ arrival in Vietnam, for the first leg of a three-country tour, caught the apparent shove before the pair descended from the presidential plane at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi. The incident caused him to step back, looking surprised, before he quickly beamed and waved at the cameras on the Tarmac below.
Ms Macron remained momentarily hidden behind the plane’s fuselage, blocking any view of her face or body language. The couple, who have been married since 2007, then descended the steps together, with France’s first lady appearing to refuse her husband’s arm.
“I was bickering, or rather joking, with my wife,” Mr Macron later told reporters. “It’s nothing. I’m surprised by it, it turns into some kind of global catastrophe where people are even coming up with theories to explain it… It’s nonsense.”
The couple appeared to convey a different image when pictured boarding the presidential plane on Tuesday as they left Vietnam for Indonesia. They will travel to Singapore towards the end of this week.
A presidential aide said the purpose of the trip was to pitch France as a reliable alternative partner to the United States and China.
But the incident between the couple has shifted the media focus of the trip.
Mr Macron cautioned that this was not the first time in recent weeks that the content of videos of him had been twisted by people he described as “crackpots”.
The French president cited a video shared on social media that showed him removing a crumpled white object from a table on a train during a visit to Ukraine.
Some social media users suggested – without providing evidence – that the object was a bag of cocaine. Mr Macron said it was a tissue, and his office accused France’s enemies of spreading fake news.
