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FRANCE-POLITICS-MACRON-CRIME
Macron plays down slapping incident as ‘isolated’
PARIS, June 9, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday played down an incident that saw him slapped by a man while meeting a crowd in the southeast of the country, blaming “ultra-violent” individuals.
“I am doing fine. We must put this incident, which I think is an isolated event, into perspective,” he told the Dauphine Libere newspaper in an interview after the incident in the village of Tain-l’Hermitage in the Drome region.
But he added: “Let’s not let isolated events, ultra-violent individuals… take hold of the public debate: they do not merit it.”
BSS/AFP/MMA/0940HRS