[imagesource: Twitter / Ragıp Soylu]

French president Emmanuel Macron was greeting the public waiting for him behind barriers in the town of Tain-l’Hermitage, outside the city of Valence, after he visited a school training students to work in hotels and restaurants.

Things took a bit of a turn when he walked up to one man in the crowd and took a slap straight to the face.

The man who slapped Macron was quickly stopped by the president’s bodyguards, but not before he cried out “Montjoie! Saint-Denis!”, which is a centuries-old royalist war cry, before finishing with “A bas la Macronie”, or “Down with Macron-ism”.

The same war cry was shouted by someone in 2018 as they flung a cream pie at a far-left lawmaker named Éric Coquerel, according to France24.

In videos that are all over the news and social media right now, Macron is pulled away by his guards, but pushed through towards the end and briefly returned to the barrier to interact with the crowd again, reports the BBC.

He is sticking to his guns, saying he will continue no matter what and that “nothing will stop [him].”

Let’s see angle number one:

A protestor slaps Macron in the face in the city of Tain, shouting “down with Macron” pic.twitter.com/Pnzs1HxNqD

— Rag?p Soylu (@ragipsoylu) June 8, 2021

And again, from the other side:

Two men have since been arrested, although the motive of the man in the green shirt remains unclear.

In a statement reported by AFP news agency, the local prefecture said that he and another individual are being questioned by the gendarmerie.

Macron was protected by 10 members of the Security Group for the Presidency of the Republic (GSPR) on Tuesday’s trip.

He didn’t seem too fussed, calling it an “isolated event”:

“We must not let ultra-violent people take over the public debate: they do not deserve it,” he told French newspaper Le Dauphiné.

It looks like Macron-ism will continue in full force:

“Tomorrow, a new step will be taken,” Mr Macron tweeted after his visit to the hotel school. “Life will resume in all our territories!”

Indeed, life must go on.

[sources:bbc&france24]