French President Emmanuel Macron allegedly argued that video images showing his wife Brigitte pushing him away with both hands in the face on Monday were a pro-Russian disinformation campaign.
"Brigitte's hands #Macron brought to the PR's face at #Hanoï : the Élysée initially denied the veracity of the images, suggesting a video generated by AI and relayed by pro-Russian accounts, before finally authenticating the sequence and evoking a moment of "complicity," a post from the French outlet, Brèves de presse, claimed.
Although Macron’s office initially denied the authenticity of the images, The Associated Press later confirmed them as genuine.
His office has continued to downplay the incident following the initial attempt to suggest a pro-Russia disinformation campaign.
"It was a moment where the president and his wife were decompressing one last time before the start of the trip by horsing around. It’s a moment of complicity. It was all that was needed to give ammunition to the conspiracy theorists," his office said.
Macron has also told reporters that the couple were just joking around.
"We are squabbling and, rather, joking with my wife," he said, adding that the incident was being overblown into "a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe."
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Video of the incident showed a uniformed man opening the plane door as Macron was seen wearing a suit and standing in the doorway. Brigitte Macron's arms – in red sleeves – could be seen reaching out and pushing Macron away, with one hand covering his mouth and part of his nose while the other was on his jaw. The French president turned his head away but suddenly noticed news cameras capturing the moment. He quickly smiled and waved before exiting the door frame.
Macron and his wife later disembarked the stairs of the aircraft together. The French president offered his arm, though the first lady – seen wearing a red blazer – did not take hold of it.
The video quickly went viral and was mainly promoted by accounts that have been accused of being habitually hostile to the French leader.
"For three weeks … 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. Everyone needs to calm down."
