’Just joking’: Macron denies dispute with wife, blames disinformation

HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron denied Monday having a domestic dispute with his wife Brigitte after a video appeared to show her shoving his face away when they touched down for a visit to Vietnam, blaming disinformation campaigns for trying to put false meaning on the footage.

The Elysee had been hoping that the visit to Vietnam would showcase France's reach into the Indo-Pacific, but it has been shadowed by the incident which occurred as the doors of the presidential plane swung open after landing in Hanoi Sunday.

This is the third time this month that Macron has been the subject of viral video footage at a time when France says it is being targeted by repeated disinformation campaigns as Russia steps up attacks on Ukraine.

It was falsely claimed Macron took cocaine on a trip to Kyiv alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and images also emerged purporting to show Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dominate the French leader in a handshake.

In Hanoi, Brigitte sticks out both her hands and gives her husband's face a shove, according to footage shot by the Associated Press news agency.

The French president appears startled but quickly recovers and turns to wave through the open door. But with most of her body hidden by the aircraft, it is impossible to see his wife's facial expression or body language.

"My wife and I were squabbling, we were rather joking, and I was taken by surprise," he said.

Now it's "become a kind of planetary catastrophe, and some are even coming up with theories," Macron told reporters.

Calm down

Macron testily referred to the other incidents, including the images shot on the train to Kyiv where some accounts falsely claimed he shared cocaine.

But the object Macron removed from the table when the media entered was a tissue.

Erdogan, meanwhile, was filmed holding the president's finger at a summit.

"None of these are true," Macron said of the videos.

"Everyone needs to calm down," he added.

After the incident in Hanoi, the couple proceeded down the staircase for the official welcome by Vietnamese officials, though Brigitte Macron did not take her husband's arm when he offered it.

The video circulated online, promoted particularly by accounts that are habitually hostile to the French leader.

Macron's office initially denied the authenticity of the images, evoking the possible use of artificial intelligence, before they were confirmed as genuine and Macron responded.

Nothing more

"In these three videos I took a tissue, shook someone's hand and just joked with my wife, as we do quite often. Nothing more," Macron said.

He blamed manipulations on "networks that are quite well-traceable", specifically pointing the finger at "the Russians" and "the extremists in France."

He emphasised that all three videos were "completely authentic" but the meanings attached to them were not.

Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who had actively promoted the cocaine disinformation earlier this month, wrote on Telegram that Macron had received "a right hook from his wife".

She said Macron's advisers would try to explain away the gesture by blaming Russia. "Maybe it was the 'hand of the Kremlin'?" she said, with heavy sarcasm.

Vietnam is the first stop on Macron's tour of Southeast Asia where he will pitch France as a reliable alternative to the United States and China.

He will also visit Indonesia and Singapore.

The relationship between Macron, 47, and his 72-year-old wife has long been a subject of fascination at home and abroad.

She was a drama teacher and he a pupil when they met at a private school in their hometown of Amiens in northeast France. A mother of three children, Brigitte divorced her husband and began a relationship with Macron while he was in his late teens.

A high-profile first lady, she has taken legal action to counter false claims on social media about her gender.