Replace the French Kiss With the French Slap! Top Macron MEMEs

By Sally Shakkour

French president Emmanuel Macron was slapped in the face yesterday by a man in a crowd as he spoke to the public during a visit to southeast France.

The video which has gone viral in a short time shows the French president getting closer to a metal fence and clasping the arm of a man from the crowd as he started to greet onlookers in the village of Tain-l'Hermitage, in France.

The man grabbed Macron’s hand with one hand and then slapped him with the other one super quickly. The police rapidly pushed the man away and the French president was seen running out of the area.

Later on, the French authorities announced arresting two people, the attacker and another individual who filmed the incident, for "willful violence against a person holding public authority."

After the video went viral on social media, the French president held an interview with the Le Dauphine Libere newspaper saying: "Everything is fine. This incident must be put into perspective, which is, I think, an isolated fact...There can be no violence, no hatred, neither in speech nor in actions. Otherwise, it is democracy itself that is threatened." 

Uncountable number of memes have emerged on the internet after the President’s slap alongside several hashtags such as #MacronSlap #MacronSlapped #صفعة_ماكرون.

A Twitter user compared the Macron slap video with the video of the Iraqi journalist Muntadhar Al-Zaidi who threw his shoes at the former US President George W. Bush during a press conference in 2008. 

Another video was released that hosts a combination of French presidents being either hit, slapped or attacked by their own people.

Furthermore, Palestinian Artist Mahmoud Abbas shared a cartoon on his Instagram account representing the French President Macron being slapped in the face.