The French Slap Incident

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2bbJ0FM7gM

Emmanuel Macron has denied he and his wife, Brigitte, had an altercation after a viral video promoted by Russian state media and French far-right accounts appeared to show her pushing him in the face as they prepared to get off a plane in Vietnam.

The video, shot by an Associated Press camera operator, shows the French president appearing in the doorway of the plane at the start of a visit to Hanoi. His wife’s hand appears to shove him, causing him to step back before recovering and waving.

Brigitte Macron’s body is not visible and her husband told reporters afterwards the gesture was playful. But the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, saw the footage, writing on Telegram that the president had received “a right hook”.

“Did the first lady decide to cheer up her husband with a gentle pat on the cheek and miscalculated her strength?” she asked in a mocking post. “Did she want to fix his collar but ended up reaching the beloved face?” Zakharova added, after the Russia Today TV channel and associated social media accounts had repeatedly aired the clip. “Here’s a hint: maybe it was the ‘hand of the Kremlin’.”

Macron told reporters in Hanoi he and his wife were “joking around, as we do quite often”. An Élysée Palace official told French media the scene showed “a moment of closeness. But that was enough to feed the conspiracy theorists.”

Another Elysée source said the couple were “decompressing one last time before the start of the visit, messing  around”. Macron “loves playing jokes on his wife before official occasions, and she always responds like this … It wasn’t even a slap.”

Macron noted that other videos of him had been misunderstood. People “have thought I shared a bag of cocaine, that I’m having a domestic dispute with my wife, … None of this is true. Everyone needs to calm down,” he said.

Zakharova and the US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones this month wrongly accused Macron, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, of using drugs on a train to Kyiv, claiming a crumpled tissue was a bag of cocaine.

Macron told reporters in Hanoi the internet accounts making the claims were “familiar”, allying Russians with French extremists, adding that commentators had “explained this morning that my diplomacy was that of a battered husband”.

France and Vietnam  on Monday signed deals on Airbus planes, defence and other pacts worth €9bn (£7.55bn) as the Macrons embarked on the first formal visit by a French presidential couple to the country’s former colony in nearly a decade.

The deals with Vietnam come amid trade turmoil prompted by Donald Trump’s US tariffs and cover the purchase of 20 Airbus planes, cooperation on nuclear energy, defence, rail and maritime transport, satellites and vaccines.

1.VOCABULARY

 

extremists

:      A quick hit with the flat part of the hand

 

slap	:                  A noisy or angry argument or disagreement

 

conspiracy:

Taxes on goods coming into a country

 

tariffs

:                Not correctly interpreted or understood

 

spokesperson

:    A secret plan made by a group to do something harmful or unlawful

 

decompressing:

Relaxing after stress

 

colony

:              A person who speaks for an organization or government

 

mocking:

A country or area controlled by another country

 

altercation:

A movement of the hand or body to express something

 

diplomacy:

Formal agreements between countries or groups

 

viral

:                 Quickly spread widely on the internet

 

misunderstood:

The work of managing relations between countries

 

pacts:

People who hold very strong, sometimes dangerous political or religious views

 

gesture:

Making fun of someone in a mean or teasing way

 

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2. SYNONYM MATCH  

Match the words in Column A with their closest synonyms from Column B:

Word	Synonym
playful	agreements
deals	conflict
official	misjudged
conspiracy	fun
mocking	motion
miscalculated	teasing
gesture	plot
dispute	argument
altercation	formal
viral	widespread

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3. ROLE-PLAY EXERCISES

 Media Press Conference

Roles: Emmanuel Macron, Brigitte Macron, French Journalist, Russian Media Reporter
Scenario: After the viral video, each role must respond to the media.

• Macron must downplay the situation.
• Brigitte defends her gesture.
• French journalist asks for clarification.
• Russian media pushes conspiracy angle.

4. Choose one from the list of most things couples fight about and why: 

1. Money

2. Trust and Jealousy

3. Household Responsibilities

4. Communication Styles

5. Time Spent Together vs. Apart

6. Parenting and Childcare

7. In-laws and Extended Family

8. Intimacy

9. Future Goals and Priorities

10. Something not on the list 

5. Macron has said that there has been false rumours and media reports being spread about him by his enemies. Which ones of these reports about Macron  do you think are the most destructive for a politician´s career and why: 

1. He has a drug problem

2. He is having numerous affairs with both men and women. 

3. His wife is transgender. 

4.His marriage is a political arrangement

5. His wife is the one who makes the politial decisions. 

6: What do you know about these First and Former First Ladies?

María Begoña Gómez Fernández

Brigitte Marie-Claude Macron

Hilary Clinton

Melania Trump

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Carla Bruni

Eva Peron

Michelle Obama

7. Couples With Huge Age Differences:

What is the word when you have a huge age difference between couples?

What do you know about these couples with huge age differences:

1.Michael Douglas & Catherine Zeta-Jones

2.George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin

3.Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart

4.Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi

5.Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds

6.Sarah Paulson and Holland Taylor

8.While the slap received a lot of news by the media, what other events do you think people should be paying attention to more:

1. Israel–Iran Conflict Escalation

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2. Air India Flight 171 Tragedy

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3. Los Angeles Protests and Civil Unrest

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4. Other Events or Issues

9. Discussion & Comprehension Questions

1.     If a political leader like Macron were slapped by his spouse in public, what might be the public reaction, and why?

2.     How should the media report incidents involving the personal lives of public figures?

3.     Do you think public figures have a right to privacy? Why or why not?

4.     How can such an incident affect a politician's image or credibility?

5.     Should political leaders be judged based on their personal relationships? Why or why not?

6.     How should Macron’s team respond to such a scandal, hypothetically?

7.     What role does social media play in spreading and reacting to such incidents?

8.     How do power dynamics play a role in public relationships, especially when one partner holds a prominent office?

9.     Should incidents like this influence voters’ opinions or political decisions?

10. What are the dangers of assuming guilt or innocence based on a viral clip without full context?

10. Fill in the blanks: 

1.  France is                          several countries including Belgium ,Luxembourg, Germany,Switzerland, Italy,Spain and Andorra.

2. The                          is one of the smallest countries in Europe .

3.  It is                        between France and Spain.

4. It does not have access to the sea . It is                       .

5. In the past , Catholicism was the national religion on France. This is no longer the case, as France seperates religion from politics. It is considered to be a                          country. 

6. Macron has been elected twice as president. This is his second                         as president. 

7. There is almost 25 years between Macron and his wife. It is a                                           relationship.

8. There is almost 25 years difference between him and his wife. What is another word for 25 years?

9. She is 25 years his                        . He is 25 years her                       .

10. In the beginning you disliked him but after some time has passed, you began to like him. This means that he                        on you.

11. The City of Love is the                        of Paris.

12. If Paris is a city that you would love to visit one day, it is on your                                   .

13. It was your dream to visit Paris but when you went there you were disappointed. You thought Paris was                                .

14. Some things about Paris you loved and some other things you hated. This means that for you, Paris was                                             .

15. Paris is                               for having the rudest waiters in the world.