Emmanuel Macron: French Ambassador Describes Man Who Slapped the President as a Moron

• The man who slapped the French president has been handed a jail term
• A French court heard the case just days after it happened and sentenced the young man
• Damien Tarel went viral after a video in which he was seen slapping Emmanuel Macron was posted online

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The French Ambassador to Ghana, Ann-Sophie Avé, has described the man who slapped French President Emmanuel Macron as a “moron”.

Speaking in an interview on Starr103.5FM and monitored by Briefly News, Avé said the incident gave France an appalling image across the globe.

“France as a state has been struggling so much to promote solidarity and support for Africa economy, a slap from a moron whose IQ is under the sea level should not change the image of France, this incident has served a terrible image of France all over the world. This is quite unfair,” she told the Accra-based radio station.

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The 'moronic' slap

A man in a crowd of onlookers, Damien Tarel, slapped French President Emmanuel Macron in the face on Tuesday, 8 June. The incident occurred on a walkabout in Southern France.

Images on social media showed Macron approach a barrier to greet a man who, instead of shaking hands, slapped the 43-year-old across the face. Macron’s security entourage quickly intervened to pull the man to the ground and moved Macron away from him.

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Macron slapper sentenced to jail

A French court ordered Tarel to serve four months in jail, BFM TV reports.

In a report sighted by Briefly News on Reuters, Tarel, 28, an unemployed fan of medieval swordsmanship, has been sentenced to time in jail. The convict, identified as a right-wing sympathiser, said he attacked Macron because the president stands for all that was rotten with France.

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For his punishment, the court ordered him to serve 18 months in jail but 14 of those months were suspended. The 28-year-old man said he had earlier considered throwing an egg or a cream tart at the president but ended up slapping Macron - an act he told the court was not premeditated.

"I think that Macron represents very neatly the decay of our country," he told the court, according to BFM TV. "If I had challenged Macron to a duel at sunrise, I doubt he would have responded," Tarel added.

Unfortunate incident

Macron, on the other hand, described the unfortunate incident as an affront to democracy and said it did not speak well of a citizen. His office also did not respond to requests for comment on Tarel's courtroom remarks.

Tarel faced a charge of assault against a public official, an offence which carries a maximum sentence of three years in jail and a 45 000 euro fine.

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Jail time

Previously, Briefly News reported that a French court has ordered Damien Tarel, the man who slapped French President Emmanuel Macron on the cheek, to serve four months in jail, BFM TV reports.

In a report sighted by on Reuters, Damien Tarel, 28, an unemployed fan of medieval swordsmanship has also been asked to do time in jail. The convicted identified as a right-wing sympathiser, and said he attacked Macron because the president stood for all that was rotten with France.

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Source: Briefly News