Share this @internewscast.com
While speaking to reporters in Hanoi on Monday, Macron directly addressed the video, countering the rumors it generated.
“There’s a clip showing me playfully interacting with my wife, and somehow it gets blown out of proportion, with people crafting different theories to explain it,” the president stated.
Macron acknowledged the footage was genuine but criticised how it had been weaponised.
“The videos are all real, and yes, sometimes people tamper with them, but people are attributing all kinds of nonsense to them.”
In the brief video, the door of the aircraft opens with Macron appearing first. Moments after, Brigitte Macron’s hands come into view from the side, apparently pushing the president’s face away in an unexpected gesture.
Macron appears momentarily surprised but quickly regains his composure and waves to the press outside.
As the couple descend the steps, Macron offers Brigitte his arm, which she does not take, opting instead to hold the railing.
The Ãlysée initially denied the incident on the plane, before later moving to downplay its significance.
The couple were merely bickering, a source close to the president told CNN affiliate BFM TV. It was a “moment of togetherness”, according to an Ãlysée source.
“It was a moment when the president and his wife were unwinding one last time before the trip began, playfully teasing each other,” the source told CNN Monday.
“No more was needed to feed the mills of the conspiracy theorists,” the source added, saying pro-Russian trolls were quick to spin the moment into controversy.
Macron has been at the forefront of efforts to agree a coordinated European response to defending Ukraine following Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
The incident in Hanoi comes as Macron faces another swirl of online disinformation. Earlier this month the Ãlysée dismissed as “fake news” a viral claim – amplified by Kremlin officials – that the French president was using cocaine aboard a train to Kyiv alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The rumor, traced back to pro-Russian accounts, falsely claimed a crumpled tissue Macron picked up was a cocaine bag.
The Kremlin’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova fuelled the claim, suggesting the scene was part of a wider European dysfunction. French officials condemned the campaign as part of ongoing efforts by Moscow to weaken Western unity on Ukraine and manipulate peace discussions through false narratives and social media manipulation.
