It seems that the ghost of French President Emmanuel Macron's slap at the hands of a young man during his visit to southeastern France two weeks ago, is still haunting him, after it turned into a global event that he heard about, big and small.
On a visit by Macron to a school in the Somme region in northern France, he was not aware that he was on a date with an embarrassing question from one of the children who stopped him in front of the television cameras, inquiring: "Are you okay after the slap you received?"
"Ça va la claque que tu t'es price?"
Emmanuel Macron interpellé par un enfant dans une école à Poix, en Picardie pic.twitter.com/xMi5IQFW6d
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) June 17, 2021
The French president's response came with a wide smile and said: "Yes, it's okay, it wasn't fun, and that's not a good thing."
Then he added to the child: "It is never good for someone to hit, even in the schoolyard, it is not good, and whoever slapped me was not right."
The famous slap
On June 9, a French court sentenced the person who slapped President Emmanuel Macron to a four-month prison term.
The Valence city court convicted the 28-year-old, Damien Tarrell, of assaulting a person in charge of public authority, and sentenced him to 4 months in prison with strict enforcement and 14 months with a suspended sentence, according to the French BFM TV website.
Tarrell's verdict came just two days after the accident took place in the Drôme region in southeastern France.
A video clip of the moments of the attack was published, showing Macron heading towards a group of citizens who were waiting for him during a visit to the region.
As he approached the crowd, Tarrell grabbed Macron's hand and slapped him hard in the face with his second hand, while chanting "Down with the macaroni."
Following the incident, the police arrested Tarrell and his friend Arthur C., who filmed the incident.